Never a Silent Night
by mltrefry
Summary: A needed respite between the events of the Game Station and a required visit to Jackie for Christmas, The Doctor takes Rose and Jack to a special planet in preparation for the Holiday. Trouble finds them, as it always does, and investigating a kidnapping and the feud it seems to stem from forces the trio to face and embrace the changes (or lack thereof) Bad Wolf made among the team
1. Never Simple

_Disclaimer: the Usual_

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The cool air hit her cheeks, as did the flurry of snowflakes, and Rose Tyler smiled into the weather as she stepped outside. In a dress too fancy to do much in, reminiscent of the one she'd worn in Cardiff, she stepped outside with a tennis shoe covered foot and left her print in the fluffy white stuff. Giggling, she stepped out and twirled around, face to the golden sky with absolute glee. The Doctor had promised her snow, promised a perfect holiday feel before she went home to visit her Mum, and likely Mickey, for a proper London Christmas. But this, this was exquisite, perfection, a winter wonderland.

It was also slippery, and mid laugh her eyes went wide as her feet suddenly came out from underneath her.

"Whoa, there. I got ya." The Doctor's deep, soothing voice said, and he caught her with one arm as if they'd been dancing and he merely dipped her back. One look at the glee in his ice blue eyes, the slight smile pulling on his lips, and Rose was grinning again. "Thought you'd make snow angels? In that dress? Bit impractical, that." He teased as he brought her back to her feet.

Rose straightened her skirt before tucking a loose strand back behind her ear with a glove covered hand. "Impractical for most things. Sure we aren't gonna be running anywhere?" She asked him, her cheeks rosy from the chill and his catching her. She didn't need saving, hadn't for a long time, but it was also a bit of a rush when he did it anyway. Even if it was simply being saved from minor humiliation.

"No running," He said as he stuck his hands in his leather jacket pockets, the shift momentarily showing more of his dark red jumper, and he gave a single nod for confirmation. She smirked at the sparkle in his eye.

"You know, you keep sayin' that but I just don't believe you." Jack said, stepping out in a black suit, his ivory waist coat contrasting against his white oxford, the dark green cravat not quite so interesting a touch as the top hat he had on his head. Over the suit was a dark gray, wool pea-coat that went to his knees and he chose to leave open. He smiled to Rose, handing her a clutch that matched the deep green of her dress with a wink.

"Well stop stirring up trouble, and I'd stay a man of my word." The Doctor retorted, folding his arms and looking Jack up and down. "And what's with the get up?"

Jack spread his arms out to the side, looking down at his outfit of choice before meeting the Doctor's eye. "You said this place was big on formal, and late 19th century Earth styles. This fits, doesn't it?"

"I said that to Rose so she'd know what to change into. Didn't mean you had to." The Doctor replied, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth while he shifted a slight distance away from Jack. It was nearly imperceptible, and Rose was sure anyone who hadn't known them or their repertoire wouldn't have noticed it. But she did, every time. "Though you do clean up pretty good." The Doctor added.

"For a human," Rose teased as she stepped up and tucked her hand in the crook of the Doctor's leather covered arm. She smiled, tongue curling around her tooth as she glanced up at the Doctor to gadge his reaction.

He rolled his eyes.

"So where are we, exactly, anyway?" She asked as the Doctor rested his other hand over hers, and Jack came up beside her.

"Leatis. A planet where the wealthiest beings in the nearest five galaxies, and the even wealthier from farther out, come to celebrate whatever their winter holiday is. The planet was terraformed by humans about three hundred years ago, but the position of the planet against the two suns made it a bit frostier then they were expecting. So, instead of gripping and moaning, they used it to their advantage. Marketed it as a getaway, brought out ancient Christmas cards and paintings and set about mimicking them. Course, had to have something for the tourists to do, couldn't have them just wonder about all dressed up and singing jolly songs, they set up events. Classic traditions from classic Earth." He said all this while hardly taking a breath, and as always Rose was mesmerized. The man could probably tell her the history of soup from a tin and she'd be enthralled. It was the way his voice boomed, deep and confident. The way his eyes lit up when he sprouted facts from his impressive mind, the joy of sharing it clear as day in the slight lines of his face. She often thought of him as handsome in an unconventional sort of way, but he shone with that light smile playing on his face.

"So we're on a planet to celebrate a holiday that hasn't been recognized for at least twenty centuries by my time because?" Jack asked, hands behind his back as they walked down the sidewalk lining the old-fashioned looking buildings. A horse clopped by, pulling an open sleigh with people dressed in finery looking out at the settlement as they went.

"Because Rose asked." The Doctor replied, and he shot a smug grin Jack's way.

"Gonna go see my Mum soon for the holidays, and I just wanted to be in the right mood." She told him, and Jack nodded.

"This mean I'm going to finally meet the infamous Jackie Tyler?" He asked with a sly grin.

"Sounds like," The Doctor conquered.

"But what are we doing here?" Rose asked just as Jack opened his mouth to say something. Better he keep whatever comment he was about to make to himself, she'd wager.

"Like I said, classic Christmas traditions. And you, Rose Tyler, deserve something fantastic. And what could be any more fantastic than the Nutcracker?" He asked, but she wasn't sure he was being serious.

Stopping on the sidewalk, she looked up at him to see if there was a joke lingering behind that grin, a tease she didn't quite pick up on. She glanced over her shoulder to Jack, but he seemed just as confused and taken aback as she was.

"Are you serious?" He asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "What's wrong with a classic ballet?"

Jack and Rose exchanged another glance. "Well," Jack said. "Doesn't seem very, I dunno …."

"Doctor." Rose filled in, and Jack nodded as she turned back to the Time Lord.

"Oi, I take offense to that." He said, a hint of amusement dancing in his gaze. "Enjoy all sorts of entertainment, me. Big fan of the Opera in a couples lives." He said, and it wasn't the first time he'd spoken of his past, but it still sent a startled shock through Rose's system.

It was a topic of conversation that became necessitated after recent events. She didn't like to think about it much, mostly because she didn't remember everything that happened. Rose recalled opening the TARDIS, but nothing else. What ever happened when she returned to Satellite 5, Game Station, whatever they wanted to call it, it took a lot out of the Doctor. He'd been in a coma of sorts for nearly four days, and not long after he sat both her and Jack down and told them what could have happened.

She studied his face a little more, trying to memorize every detail. She couldn't imagine for a second what it might have been like if she woke up to a different man saying it was him, or if she'd ever really believe it. She'd mourn for the man he'd been, probably forever.

The Doctor seemed to have noticed her lingering stare, though he didn't say anything about it. There was a glint in his eyes, playful and maybe a bit hopeful, and his mouth curled in a subtle grin that one wouldn't have been spotted unless they knew what to look for.

"Well, I suppose, men in tights. Can't be all bad, right?" Jack said, clapping a hand on Rose's shoulders before the trio started walking again.

"Never been my thing, really." Rose confessed. "Followed gymnastics a bit even after I left. Didn't leave much to the imagination."

"Or you could look at it as knowing what you're getting into." Jack attempted to compromise.

Neither Rose nor the Doctor said anything to that, which was probably for the best as Rose couldn't see a way to discuss the topic of men in tights that may give the Doctor the wrong impression. She still remembered Lynda, after all. May not have been good to think slightly ill of the dead, and Rose did feel bad she'd lost her life, but she'd never felt so territorial over the Doctor and she didn't want to give him reason to look at other blondes. Or women in general. She'd _thought_ before that maybe they were starting to become more, what with the way he became increasingly annoyed with the fit blokes who sauntered into their lives. She distinctly remembered how he almost seemed envious when she married that caveman just to get the tribe to listen to her, but maybe she was distorting what she heard in her mind.

His hand closed tightly around hers where it rest on his elbow, fingers curling around hers and breaking her out of her thoughts. She smiled, leaned her head on his arm, and sighed with utter contentment. As much as she loved Jack, Rose had to admit the moment would have been perfect if he wasn't lingering close behind.

They continued down the street, the Doctor seeming to know exactly where they were going. Rose noted the store front windows decorated for Christmas, but that it lacked any other holiday in the atmosphere.

"Thought you said people come here to celebrate _their_ winter holiday?" She asked, looking up at the Doctor. "Don't see much variety."

"Leatis has different continents and countries dedicated to the different celebrations." He explained.

Rose nodded, smiling just a bit. She loved immersing her self in the local cultures, but it was nice to know he specifically landed them in a particular area.

"Isn't that cute." Jack pipped up. "Lovely way for us to spend out first Christmas together."

The Doctor snorted. "First Christmas with you, maybe. Second for Rose and me." He stated, and she looked up at him in confusion. His brow furrowed. "Charles Dickens and the Gelth."

Rose chuckled, "Does that really count, though?"

"Think it does, yeah. Ah! Here we are," he announced as they turned to corner and stood before a magnificent theater. "Leatis Noel center for performance arts. Catch the afternoon showing of the Nutcracker, then maybe if you behave we can take in a Christmas Carol."

"We makin' Dickens a tradition, then?" She teased, her tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth.

"Could do," He smiled slyly.

"I can leave if you two would prefer to be alone." Jack teased, and Rose turned to catch him flashing the Doctor a wink. She sensed the Time Lord shifting around behind her as if he considered taking Jack's offer.

"What about your men in tights?" She teased the Captain, and his eyes went wide and distant as if he had only just remembered that possibility. "Come on." She gestured with her head, feeling the Doctor tense for a moment before pulling her along.

They got inside without a hitch, the Doctor flashing the psychic paper to the ticket master who instantly scrambled and babbled until an Usher was finally able to come escort them. The three were led up to a balcony that hovered about twenty feet above the stage. It wasn't the best angle for watching the show, but the way the Usher also fawned over them Rose assumed it was actually meant for the rich and well connected. They settled into their seats with programs in hand, Jack on one side of Rose, the Doctor on the other. She glanced down at the filling auditorium seating below, the crowd giving an oddly melodic hum which was easily explained by the sightings of some distinctly non-human patrons.

"Odd to see so many aliens here." She commented.

"That's because we're in the fifty-third century by your time. Church changed, became a bit more military by this point, and Christmas wasn't considered an entirely religious endeavor. Course, you lot went through a period where it became very commercial. Nearly entirely about things. By this time, though, it's become more about family. Spending time with those you …." He stopped, his ears going pink and his posture stiffening. "Care about, quite deeply." He swallowed visibly, clearing his throat, and continuing. "They took the traditions that had nothing to do with religion, or at least very little, and did away with more of the material things. Kids at this point don't believe in Santa Claus because they were never taught about him."

"Santa Claus?" Jack made a face, looking down at Rose with a raised eyebrow. "Seriously, you believe in that stuff?"

"Only when I was a kid," She shook her head with a grin. "Then again, I have it under good authority he might be a bit more real than I thought." She said, leaning back and resting her head on the Doctor's arm.

He chuckled, "It was one time."

"And it was my last, that's the part that really matters." She turned to look him in the eye. "You gave me one last year of my childhood, and now I know why Mum was so confused about that silly bicycle."

"You went back in time to give Rose a bicycle? Like you were Santa Claus?" There was an implication in Jack's voice that Rose couldn't define, didn't dare to for what it might cause her to hope for.

"She saved my life." The Doctor said indignantly.

The lights in the theater dimmed, and they all stopped talking to watch the stage. The Doctor handed Rose a tiny pair of binoculars, likely not needing them himself because of some superior Time Lord reason. She squeezed his arm in thanks before lifting them to her eyes.

The ballet was gorgeous, and while Rose could hear her mother in the back of her mind rambling on about airs and graces and all that nonsense, she was enthralled with seeing something she likely wouldn't have without the Doctor. He'd entwined their fingers, arms partially entwined, and leaned a little closer to her than he had been. Near enough that she could smell the mix of his skin with the leather of his jacket, Rose's heart thrummed with so much love, hope, and anticipation it made her dizzy. She had to lower the binoculars to regain some equilibrium.

Which may have been why she didn't notice the tin soldiers led by the Nutcracker near the final act where moving very stiffly. Yes, they were meant to be toys, but there was a hard, jolting movement about them that was almost mechanical. They charged the mice, and while the choreography did call for a mock battle, it was the sound of injury barely heard over the Orchestra that made her note something was wrong.

She, the Doctor, and Jack all leaned forward at once, straining to get a better look. She was nearly positive that the tin soldiers were not meant to turn on their fellow dancers as soon as the mice all seemed incapacitated. She was certain they weren't supposed to hit the Nutcracker in the face and cause him to stumble back with what looked like a broken nose. And it was definitely not in the program for them to force the character of Clara-Marie to center front where they pushed her to her knees. One solider produced a saw where their hand used to be, and an involuntary gasp escaped Rose as said saw went close to the dancer's neck.

The music in the theater had been replaced by cries of distress and fear, the dancers who'd been pushed around but not knocked out or badly injured scuttled to the back of the stage or off it completely. The half dozen soldiers that surrounded the girl, who's chest heaved but posture remained rim-rod, seemed to wait patiently until there was mostly silence.

"We have the girl, you will give us what we want, or she will die." A tin soldier said, though it was impossible to tell which one as known of their mouths moved. "You have three days."

And in a flash, the soldiers and Clara-Marie disappeared from the stage.

After a few seconds ticked by, Jack said, "Thought you said no running."

"Technically we're not running yet," The Doctor partly growled.

"I'm so glad I didn't wear the proper shoes to go with this dress." Rose said, her voice only shaking a tiny bit. She took a deep breath, collecting herself before she turned to the Doctor. "Shall we get started then?"

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 **A/N:** Thanks for reading. Hoping to have this updated about every 4 days. You know, like a story advent of sorts.

Also, _Run With You_ series fans, don't worry: _Until The End_ is still on its way, still being worked on. Be patient. I wouldn't let you down.


	2. Hearts Stutter

"You've seen them before?" Jack asked as they hastily moved through the crowds. The Doctor grasped Rose's hand, trying not to let it flinch as Jack managed to come up beside him.

"Clockwork droids. Yeah, we have. 1920, London. Off planet origin, obviously, but I don't think this is the same." The Doctor replied, pausing in the town square and looked around to see if he could find where he thought might be their next move. He spotted the sign in a side street, hanging from the exterior of the tallest building in the city. He glanced down at Rose. "Fancy staying a bit longer than intended?"

"Thought nothing less would happen." She replied cheekily, and he gave her hand a light tug and took off once again without warning Jack. It didn't stop the newborn anomaly from catching up to them in a matter of seconds. Again, he tried not to cringe. He knew if the TARDIS could get used to Jack's … _wrongness,_ then he could too. Maybe. In time.

"We're staying in an Inn?" Jack asked, probably just noting the sign in the direction they were heading.

"What better way to find out what's going on?" The Doctor countered. "Got a tavern right there. Lots of people gathering, drinking, talking 'bout the latest goings on. We'll hear theories of what happened, who took the girl, maybe why clockwork droids are hanging around a relatively peaceful planet." He then forced himself to look at Jack, and gave the Captain a goofy grin. "Besides, told Rose she wouldn't do any running. Lot less chance of that we stay there instead of the TARDIS." His grin turned genuine as he heard Rose giggle beside him, felt her head rest against his arm in that way that always made him feel a little silly in the best way possible.

They made their way through the crowd and entered through the inn portion of the establishment. A little man who reminded the Doctor a little of sontaran waddled up to the desk. He pondered briefly who the poor, humanoid sap was that somehow managed to get their DNA mixed with one of those spuds. He was pretty sure that sontaran's didn't have the equipment to actually breed.

"How can I help you?" The man said in a very non-sontaran way. His voice was low, and each word was said very slowly.

The Doctor smiled his most polite smile, pulled out his psychic paper, and showed it to the inn keeper. "Looking for a room." He said. "One with at least two beds."

The Inn keeper took a long look at the Psychic paper, and then he looked at the Doctor with wide eyes. "I have just the room." He said, lifting a giant, leather bound book and setting it on the counter. He flipped a few pages and then produced a pen that looked like an ancient feather quill. "Just sign here, mister Smith."

The Doctor did as instructed, signing his alias with flourish before handing the feather back to the inn keeper. The stout little man then produced three keys. "I'm afraid I had no room with three beds, but the suite at the top has separate rooms, and the sofa is rather comfortable for your footman to sleep on." He said, glancing in Jack's direction. "And I must say, it's pleasant to see a couple still only affianced sleeping separately. Seems it's one ancient custom that many can't adhere to."

He was getting really bad at not checking the psychic paper. And while he was sure that his red ears and tight jaw was likely viewed more out of bashfulness by the man in front of him, hearing Jack snicker behind him made the Doctor never want to look at Rose again. Or, at least, not for the next hour if it could be helped.

"Thank you," The Doctor managed one last polite smile before handing out the keys without looking at his companions. His respiratory bypass kicked in when Rose's fingers brushed his palm in effort to get the key, and he turned abruptly and headed up the stairs to the room number on the tag.

He unlocked the door to the suite, opening the double doors and taking in the room. He could easily spot and appreciate the two bedroom doors on opposite ends of the room. All the better to make sure the Captain was going to stay out of Rose's room, or at the very least simply not sneak in. May have been traveling the three of them for a while, but he still didn't trust the Captain's libido around Rose and her penchant for pretty boys. He then noted the large window on the across the room from where he stood. It nearly spanned the entire width of the back wall, and stretched floor to ceiling. Could be a way to let in an unwanted guest, but could also be a way to escape. They were only six stories up, he could survive that. Rose, maybe not, at least not without using him as a landing pad. The tall, simply decorated tree in front of it could be both blessing or curse in either scenario."

"Quite the digs," Jack said behind him. "Last time I saw a tub that big was Fantasia 12."

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Do we want to know?" Rose asked, moving toward the very tiny kitchenette that would be good for much more than tea and toast in the morning.

"Suppose that depends, you and your fiance need a little inspiration before bed?" Jack jabbed, and the Doctor turned a glare on the Captain. The git had the nerve to smile back, knowing full well he was causing trouble. It made testing the survival rate of a human falling six stories very tempting. Not like Jack would stay down long.

"Pretty sure anything you say wouldn't do much inspiring, thanks." Rose said, turning and giving the Captain a cheeky grin before catching the Doctor's eye. He wondered if she experienced the same heart stutter, only singular. She looked away at the same second he did, and there was a faint blush to her cheeks that he couldn't fail to notice. For the dozenth time since waking up after the Game Station incident, he let the faintest bit of hope creep into his soul.

~WD~

" _Come here, I think you need a Doctor."_

He said those silly words knowing she was dying, hoping she would move to him. And she did. Rose's hands in his, he pulled her closer.

He kissed her gently, feeling her lips part slightly against his, and it was bliss. But it was more than an easy way to take the Vortex out of her, it was his way to say goodbye. He was sure it was going to kill him, because the Doctor wasn't going to become a god for anything.

Rose collapsed in his arms, and he held her tight against him as he turned to the TARDIS and returned the Vortex. Once he released the energy, his ship closed her doors and gave a hum of relief. The Doctor looked down at Rose, stroking her cheek, grateful for the flush that colored them as a sign of her survival. She'd be fine, even if _he_ wasn't.

Just as he resigned that he'd change, his head started spinning, and his knees began to give out. He held on to Rose for as long as he could, but his arms were growing weak and shaky. Was his body healing instead of burning and changing?

He didn't know.

He was gone.

When the Doctor opened his eyes, his time sense told him three days, four hours, twenty-nine minutes, twelve seconds and counting had passed. And the first thing he saw was Rose smiling tearfully down on him.

"Rose," his voice was a little raspy, enhancing the surprise he had at seeing her in front of him already awake. Then he realized his voice sounded the same in his head.

He glanced down, seeing the black jumper and his leather jacket still filled out the way he'd known them to be. He looked at his hands, seeing the familiar appendages that he'd grown used to. He ran them over his face, feeling the stubble those three days worth of growth produced over the chin he'd shaven for over a year. He felt the prominent nose and ears he knew added nothing to his looks. He sat up, looking in to her eyes, seeing that Rose was looking at him with total familiarity. "I'm still the same," he said with a smile pulling wide, stretching rarely used muscles. Oh fantastic! He was the same him, the him he knew she liked.

"Course you are," She'd said, throwing her arms around his neck and crushing her tiny body to his. He gripped her tightly in return, relishing the feel as he did with every embrace. He felt her warm nose and hot breath on his neck, the press of her lips in a tiny peck near his pulse point. That small gesture sent his hearts soaring, his arms tightening without thought. She hummed a sigh of contentment, and a trill of glee coursed over his nerves. He could probably tell her in this moment everything she was to him, everything he felt for her. That when he set up Emergency Program One, told her to live a fantastic life, it was because he couldn't bare to tell her he loved her in a hologram as he said goodbye. But now he could, now he knew she must have cared for him in some small way, that the kiss she reciprocated wasn't simply because she was dying. In that second he knew it all went both ways.

"What happened?" She asked before he could say anything, and his whole body seized up in panic. The confidence was gone, the certainty that she returned his affections fading fast.

"You don't remember?" He asked, praying to entities he didn't believe in that she simply meant what happened to make him fall dormant.

"Just remember being desperate to get back to you, 's all." She said into his neck before leaning back. As she did, he could feel every curve of hers press into him, every inch of her torso against his. Part of his mind, the one that told him loving a human was a foolish endeavor and he should take the out, wanted him to push away. But the louder part, the one that cataloged and cherished every bit or second of Rose was whooping with joy, telling the logical side to shut it for once. There was something in the way she looked at him, the way she pressed her hand against his cheek and caressed him with her thumb that gave him complete understanding on one thing: a line had been cross. Whether she remembered or not, there was a palatable shift between them, one that he'd lose forever if he let his logic win.

"What happened?" She asked again, her concern snapping him back to reality.

So much. So much happened, and didn't happen.

~WD~

It had been little things since then. The way she let tears roll down her cheeks when he discussed regeneration, mourning the fact she could have lost him even if she didn't understand how. That she wouldn't go to sleep unless she was with him, and had invited him to join her in her room each night. There were longer looks, tighter hold on hands, and the way she looked at him earlier when he caught her catalog his old face. Oh, she could break him in an instant. Had the power to do some damage ever since their first Christmas in Cardiff, but now he had no defenses left against her.

"Right, so you two taking the left room or the right room?" Jack asked.

"Don't need much sleep, me. I'll take the couch. You two can sort the rooms out yourself. But don't need to do that this second." He turned barely meeting the eyes of his companions as he crossed his arms. "Fancy a drink?"

~DWDWDW~

The tavern was a little louder and more rowdy than the Doctor had been expecting. He had a suspicion that perhaps the celebration had something to do with the kidnapping of the ballerina, which only made him more tense.

At least Jack found something to entertain himself, or rather someone. The bar tender seemed captivated by the Captain's charm, which the Doctor partially hoped would work to their advantage. So as the former conman worked his magic, he sat with Rose and watched the crowd. Mulled wine for her, which she sipped gingerly and did her best not to grimace, and a stein of ale for him that he tasted now and then for show.

"So how's this gonna help us figure out who took the girl?" Rose asked him after her fifth sip, her lips curling in distaste. "Know I said I didn't want to be running, but this seems to be gettin' us no where."

The Doctor turned toward her, pulling his eyes away from the rowdy crowd and meeting Rose's warm gaze. "We've gone from the theater to the Inn in a small village, and know what I haven't seen or heard? Police. Authority of any sort. Hundreds of people were in that theater with us, saw the droids, heard the threats, most were frightened, and no one seems to be doing something 'bout it. Tells me that anyone looking for her seems to think they knew who took her, didn't want anyone else gettin' involved if it could be helped."

"And you'd be right," An elegant, barely masculine sounding voice caused him to turn away from Rose. Of course, the boy in front of them had to be pretty. Dark hair, brown eyes, somewhere between himself and Rickey the idiot for build. Right up Rose's alley, typical. The boy, as there was no way the Doctor could possibly think of him as any kind of man, sat down in the seat that likely would have been Jack's: directly beside Rose. He set down his stein, and at least had the decency to look between both of them instead of focusing entirely on the lady of the table. "I'm sorry to say my family and Mister Marron's have always been at odds. Everything from how and when the town should expand, to what kind of crumpets should be served in Noel's cafe."

"Noel?" Rose questioned, her voice having gone a touch higher.

"Yes, the village." The boy frowned. "How do you not know where you are?"

"Just let him lead the way," She said placing her hand on the crook of the Doctor's arm for such a brief second it would look like a singular pat. Losing her already. It had been five blissful days with the only pretty boy being Jack, and no one turning her head or catching her attention. The Doctor supposed it was due, what with this being the first place they landed with a population in that short time. "Hold on," Rose said, the corners of her mouth turning up in a smile. "I recognize you. You were the Nutcracker prince in the ballet."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he tilted his head upwards for a moment. Of course she'd have recognized some pretty boy she'd only seen through binoculars. Probably spent the whole show just watching him. Typical.

"Yes," The ballerino blushed. "Hans Seurs." He offered her his hand, and of course she bloody well took it.

"You were brilliant." Rose complimented, sounding far too giddy. "Had me really believing you were in love with Clara-Marie in that short time you were on stage together."

Hans chuckled, looking at his lap. "Probably because I wasn't pretending." He said, and the Doctor studied Rose's face, watching for the disappointment. It only lit up more. "Clara-Marie and I wanted to run off together someday, join the ballets of other worlds instead of being stuck doing only this one until our knees and ankles gave out. But I wonder if perhaps she only means to as partners. I'm not all human, after all."

To this, the Doctor really looked at him. He noticed then that his breathing patterns were off, ragged, almost as if a half thought instead of a steady need. His skin had a slightly vinyl look to it, hardly showing pores at all. There was a very slight purpling around his nose, and the Doctor remembered a droid had hit him in the face. Quick healer. And, the Doctor supposed, the boy was a bit too pretty to not have been modified in some way.

"You were created, not born." He said, and Hans met his eye and nodded. "All your family like that, or just you?"

"I have two other brothers who are like me. My sisters were born naturally." He conceded.

"Not sure I follow." Rose said.

"He's genetically engineered." The Doctor explained. "The best bits of his parents' human DNA siphoned into a a flesh form. I'm gonna guess your older brothers were designed to be brutes, and you are the youngest aren't you? Likely made to please your mother, who probably liked dance and wanted a ballerina of her own. But that's the thing with flesh forms, for as much as you can program them, you can't select their gender. You were engineered to be a dancer, and actor, a performer of some variety or another."

Hans nodded.

"So why's that stopping you from running away with her?" Rose asked. "So what if you aren't human? That bloke chatting up the bar tender could fall for anything sentient for at least one night. Don't think species really matters in the end, so long as it's mutual." She said, and he refused to acknowledge how his hearts both skipped beats.

"Suppose it doesn't matter now, though, does it?" Hans asked, looking at his drink instead of them. "Already know how this will play out. Marron is going to blame my brothers for this. They had nothing to do with it because as much as they want Marron taken out they know how I feel about Clara-Marie. If they took her, I'd be with her. And because they don't have her, the authorities that will look into this will find nothing, because Marron is singular minded and will assume this is about the feud. Everyone will. And she will be gone." His voice cracked on the last bit, and the Doctor could sympathize. He took in Rose's profile, quickly counting through the times he'd almost lost her, thought he did, and remembered the pain he felt in each instance.

"Trust me," Jack's voice broke his revere, and the Doctor looked up to see the man in question sit down on the other side of Hans. Jack took the man's hand, and like a magnet to metal Hans seemed drain to him. "We will get her back to you, one way or another. Because if there is one thing the three of us understand it's the raw fear and agony at the prospect of never seeing the ones you love again."

"How can you be so sure?" Hans asked Jack, his tone desperate as he leaned in. There was a bit of a charge in the air that only Jack could ignite, and the Doctor felt Rose's arm loop through his before she leaned her head on his leather clad shoulder.

"Because I was just chatting up the bartender," Jack smiled that cocky, know-it-all smile. "And while he doesn't quite remember what they look like, he does know that there's been a pair meeting here late at night, and they've been talking 'nonsense' about the perfect plan to take charge of Noel."

* * *

 **A/N:** Yeah, early update. Things come up, and as always, if I know there's going to be a delay on post date it'll come early.

Thank you to the readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers.

 **annabethfan16, Sommerlee, BenAddict Holmes** (There isn't enough 9 in the world), **EmmaKathy, and Hediru,** thank you for leaving word as always.

Until next week.


	3. Domestic Approach

While it did sound like a promising endeavor to stick around the tavern until the late hours Jack had spoken about, the Doctor had voiced an interest in finding out exactly what kind of man Mister Charles Marron was. He was, of course, the kind that people thought would take desperate action if his daughter was abducted, and the Doctor was curious why.

So they rented out a driver, much to Rose's surprise, and piled into the back of the horse drawn carriage that would take them to the outskirts of the town. The Doctor had, oddly, placed Rose in the middle. She was still finding that bit out of character, how often the Doctor did that since the Game Station. Once it would be he didn't dare have her that close to the Captain, but now he was using her almost like a buffer of some kind. Not always, just in cases where the Doctor wouldn't be able to shift away from Jack.

But of all the small talk type conversations she could bring up on what they were told was a fifteen minute drive, that was not going to be the topic.

"So are we really paying for a room, and a carriage, and a tab at the pub?" Rose leaned in to her Time Lord as she asked, and he turned his head slightly toward her with an infinitesimal smirk.

"Course we are."

"Not just psychic papering it all, then?" She asked, remembering a bit too clearly that it wasn't always wise to do that.

"Got credits for this galaxy. Unlimited. You don't wander off, do anything dangerous, maybe when this is all solved I'll let you do a little shopping."

"Shopping," She arched a brow. "Domestic."

"Hardly."

"My kind, yeah. No bits and bobs where I'd be going."

"Says you."

"Yeah, says me."

"You two are just adorable." Jack cut in, ending the banter. The Doctor stiffened, turning his head sharply away from Rose so she couldn't see his face. She then whirled around on Jack who's cocky grin did not falter despite Rose's best impression of the Oncoming Storm. "Seriously, adorable. Don't tell you two enough. And I should, I really should."

She didn't need him to tell her why, and her storm faded, collapsing into a lump in her throat she had a hard time swallowing around. All three of them walked away with their lives not all that long ago, lives none of them believed would continue once everything was said and done. And the days that followed the main event weren't any easier to handle.

~WD~

When Rose woke up, she knew exactly where she was: in the medbay of the TARDIS. Only problem was she had no memory of how she got there.

"Don't move too fast," She heard Jack say as she tried to sit up. She caught sight of him, looking over a computer screen. "Don't know what took you two out."

"Two?" She looked to the other side, caught the Doctor laying on the bed with his arms flushed to his sides and his eyes shut. "Doctor?" She scrambled off the bed, stumbling as she moved toward him. She clung on to his mattress for support but soon felt the seat of a chair on the back of her knees. She pulled her eyes away from the Doctor long enough to see Jack was behind her, had brought the chair over, and she gave him a grateful smile before sitting down and gripping the Doctor's hand.

"TARDIS won't translate the controls for me, so I can't get us anywhere. We're still on Satellite 5, but from what I can see on the monitor we're the only ones. Brought you two in here and the ol' girl was at least accommodating enough to translate any and everything in this room. That, or she's meant to translate it anyway. Ran tests on both of you. You were just passed out, not showing any signs of injury as far as I could tell. Almost like you just fainted. But Doc, he's in a healing coma."

"A healing what? Coma?" Rose asked, the panic coming back a bit.

"Yeah, a lot of species use them. Puts them in a state where their bodies can work on internal repairs without having to use energy to eat. And in his case, he's not even breathing that often, but his vitals are strong. We just have to wait it out."

And she did. Never leaving his bedside except for minor needs, she waited for her Time Lord, her Doctor, to come around.

When he did, it seemed instant.

"Rose," he gasped out, then looked down at himself. He raised his hands to look at them, then ran them along his face, particularly his nose, and along his ears and top of his head. He needed a bit of a shave, maybe a haircut if he had to keep it a certain length, but he wasn't all that changed. The Doctor sat up as if he hadn't been out at all in the countless days that passed, and he stared into her eyes with a smile. "I'm still the same."

"Course you are," Rose said, launching herself at him without a second thought and pulled him as tight against her as her tiny arms could manage. He reciprocated, his larger, much stronger arms held her more fiercely. She'd buried her face in his neck, smelled his skin and basking in the coolness of it. Without thinking about what she was doing, she pressed a kiss to his neck. It wasn't anything more than a simple peck, but he momentarily held her tighter. "What happened?" She asked against him.

At this he stiffened. "You don't remember?" He asked, more confused than anything.

"Just remember being desperate to get back to you, 's all." She leaned back, the movement pressing more of her against him than should be, but neither of them seemed to be too bothered by it. She palmed his cheek, running a thumb along his stubble. "What happened?" She asked again.

He shook his head. "Don't think it matters. You survived, that does. And I did, which is even better." He smiled for a moment, just a brief flicker, and then it was gone. "Rose, there's lots I need to tell ya." He said, looking at the space between them instead of at her.

"But not 'bout what happened?" She challenged, and he smirked.

"Might one day." He admitted. "But that's not something that needs discussing right now." He paused, then fidgeted. "Jack's still around."

"Yeah," Rose frowned. "He, umm, he brought us inside."

"Surprised she let him in." The Doctor mumbled.

"What was that?" Rose asked, not because she didn't hear him.

"Nothing. Let's just go find the Captain so we can all have a nice little chat."

"Well I didn't want to interrupt, but since you want me." Jack's voice caused them both to startle, and they turned to the medbay door in sync where the Captain smirked. "Should I come in, or do you two want some more time?"

The Doctor gestured with his head for Jack to enter, and Rose moved to sit beside him on the bed to give the third member of their traveling party the seat she'd occupied for days.

The Doctor dropped his gaze once more, this time to his hands it seemed, and he wrung them quite a bit as she and Jack waited in silence.

"I'm actually surprised I'm still here." The Doctor finally confessed. "Rose saved my life when she came back to me, saved us both, Jack, but I had to save her in turn." Rose went to inquire but he stopped her. Catching and holding her eye, his hand raised for her not say anything, she simply nodded and allowed him to continue. A discussion for another time. "What I did should have killed me. But that's the thing with Time Lords, we don't die, not really, not for the first twelve times. We do this thing called regeneration, change every single cell in our body. Become a new person. Memories stay, so does the key parts of our personality, but a lot of things wouldn't. Like now I take four sugars in my tea, but I might've taken lemon and cream the next go around." He said the last bit with a grin that was likely meant to disarm, but Rose was statue still and gaping at him.

He noticed, looked to Jack, then deflated a little as if he was hoping for some other, better outcome.

"How many times have you regenerated?" Jack asked what Rose couldn't.

"This is my 9th body." He confessed, turning back to Rose just as she felt the first silent tear run down her cheek. "Was better looking last go around, I think. Bit like the pretty boys you fancy." He grinned goofily, but Rose couldn't even crack a grin.

"You'd have changed." She finally managed to say. "Like, everything? Your hair, your eyes?"

"Likely even my clothes, yeah." He nodded. "Would have been in these ones at first, obviously, but they mighta been too big or too small. Coulda had brown eyes, or green, maybe even kept the color but they wouldn't have been quite the same. Mighta looked older or younger. Ears coulda been bigger, or mighta had no ears. It's a gamble, the process."

"Could you have changed into a woman?" Jack asked coyly, and the Doctor turned away from her to gap at him.

"If I wanted to, maybe. Had a friend who'd changed gender coupla times for fun. Only knew it was still them 'cause they had a habit of getting the same tattoo for each regeneration."

"So even markings go away? Scars, piercings?" Jack asked.

"Why would I want a piercing?" The Doctor wrinkled his nose. "Yes, it all goes away. Complete reset, regeneration. Well, except my age. Though I'm old enough now I might be lying about it for all I know. Last body had some memory issues prior to the war. May have lost a century or two."

Rose wasn't sure what her breaking point was, but at that she hopped of the bed and left the room, ignoring Jack's confused cries of her name. She couldn't be there, talking about the Doctor, her Doctor, dying. She didn't want to think about there having been eight other men using his name before this one. She couldn't fathom it.

The TARDIS hummed in her mind, sad and comforting, and while Rose somewhat acknowledged this difference in communication, she simply gave a mental thanks as she opened the door to her room, and made a bee-line for her bed. She threw herself on it, laying on her side facing away from the door. She closed her eyes, tried to imagine someone different in her Doctor's place, and her heart broke. Because that's the man she was in love with, and she didn't want to let that go for anything.

She didn't know how long she'd been laying there retreating to the depths of her mind. She'd felt the bed compress behind her, then a heavy, leather covered arm circled her waist as the Doctor curled up against her. She absentmindedly burrowed herself closer to him, taking his hand and pulling that reassuring arm tighter around her.

"I'd have still been me, Rose." He said softly as if he didn't want the Universe to over hear their conversation. "Outside woulda changed, and maybe a bit of the inside, but not so much that … well, I wouldn't've been different toward you."

"Still woulda been your best mate?" She asked, her voice a bit louder than his. "Wouldn't've thought me suddenly too stupid to see the stars with?"

"No," He said firmly, holding her tighter, his lean, hard body flushed completely against hers.

Rose waited for him to say more, but when he seemed to leave it at that she dared to shift around to face him. The second she was flipped around, his eyes fell to her lips and Rose blushed. "So I coulda stayed with you?" She asked him, and he met her eyes.

His hard gaze softened, and she realized that up to that point he was just as scared of the possibility of his changing as she was. "If you had wanted to." He said sincerely. "You can stay with me as long as you want."

"So … forever, then?" Rose bit her lip, letting out a breathy, nervous laugh.

He chuckled his chest, his grin warm and, dare she say, loving. At the very least it was adoring, and she'd take that. "Forever. But you're young yet, might change your mind."

"Maybe," She said, though she knew that was never going to be the case. She leaned forward, wanting to kiss him, ducking her head at the last moment to rest against his chest. "Just try not to go changing anytime soon, yeah?"

"Try my best," he said before he started rubbing soothing circles on her back.

~WD~

She fell asleep in his arms, and had done so each night since. Not in the library like she used to, but in her own bed. She'd leave the console room, galley, where ever she may have been just before going to sleep, and he'd give her about five minutes of privacy to change. Then make his way into her room and under her covers whether he needed sleep or not. After the first night, his books had appeared on the bed-side table on his chosen side. The second night she realized it wasn't so pitch black in her room, but more like sleeping under a full moon and sky full of stars. She didn't mind. But while this intimacy was amazing, and new, and nearly everything Rose had hoped for, she knew the reason why she had it. He almost lost her as well as himself, and like they did after the Dalek, after she became an avatar for him to control, after Margaret the Slitheen tried to kill her in the console room, they didn't want to let go. And while near death was near death no matter how the method, this still seemed somehow more finite.

Rose could almost feel how different things could have been.

"We're here," the driver called out.

It snapped Rose out of her thoughts, and she inhaled sharply to clear her mind. She felt the Doctor's hand slide into hers, giving it a bit of a squeeze, though when she peeked at him from the corner of her eye he still wasn't looking at her.

He was the first one out when the carriage stopped, using the hold he had on her hand to help her out, and not letting go as they approached the front door of the grand home. They weren't even all the way up the small stair case before the door flew open, and an older, well dressed man stood in the way and looked at them with wide eyes.

"Are you three the ones who helped at the theater?" He asked, looking over each of them, the Doctor a bit more critically.

"That's us. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose, and that's Captain Jack." He replied, gesturing to she and Jack. "You Clara-Marie's father?"

"No, I'm merely the head of household staff, Graham Holly. But I had a large hand in raising Clara-Marie. She's like a daughter to me." Mister Holly waved them in, closing the door before offering to take Jack's jacket out of habit.

"Not a very involved father, then." The Doctor dropped her hand, much to Rose's regret, and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Quite the contrary. Mister Marron is very involved in his daughters life despite being Mayor, among other obligations. No, my involvement is very much due to Clara-Marie's mother dying when she was quite young." He gestured for the trio to follow him through the eighteenth century looking home. "He's been to each and every one of Clara-Marie's dance recitals, will drop everything for her if need be, and became a patron of the ballet the moment she announced she'd taken up the roll of Clara-Marie in the theater. Well, at the time they had been using the name Marie for the character, but given she was named for the two that are used throughout history, they changed it there was well. Her mother was such a big fan of the production, as well as holiday history." He stopped, taking a deep breath and he stopped outside a door. "Mister Marron is just through there. He'll have questions, naturally."

"He's not the only one." The Doctor warned before Mister Holly opened the door and let them in what Rose presumed would be an office.

"May I announce the Doctor, Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness."

Inside was nearly all dark wood and red tones. Behind the great, ornate desk as a small, blading man. The hair he did have around his head was gray and wild, sticking out a good few inches, reminding Rose a bit of a mad professor. His eyes were beady, lines in the corners, though they weren't crinkled at the moment. His frown smoothed the lines that would have been more prominent had he been smiling. Well dressed and clean shaven, he certainly looked the wealthy head of town in that way.

When the trio entered the room, he was on his feet in an instant. "I know _exactly_ who took my daughter." He said without preamble. "There's a group who are very much against the expansion the Noel area of Leatis. Supposedly descendent's of the original founders, the Seurs."

"Figured you'd say that," The Doctor nodded once, wandering the room, taking in the various things on the wall. "But we already spoke to Hans, and he said they had nothing to do with your daughter's kidnapping."

Marron scoffed. "He would, foolish boy. Naive at best, gullible at worse. It's his engineering, I'd wager. And my sweet Clara-Marie, how could she not fancy such a man, even if he wasn't human. But that aside, I was told their demands were to 'give them what they wanted.' I only know of one 'they', Sir, and that's the Seurs."

"Have they kidnapped anyone before?" Jack asked, and the Doctor stiffened in that odd way that he sometimes did.

"No," Marron said, shaking his head with some resignation. "No they haven't. But when you want someone's attention, to bend them to our will, you tend to go to extremes, don't you?"

"Been known to happen, yeah." The Doctor said with a sigh, looking sideways at Rose. It lasted a second before he turned away, looking to the various framed things on the walls, before turning back to mister Marron. "Still, you know what was demanded for your daughters return. Musta spoke to the authorities. They musta known to check out the Seurs, what with a feud between you."

Marron sighed. "They said the Seurs they spoke to had solid alibis, and that there was unlikely anyone else in the family that could have done it."

"No one else in the family except a few could control a few droids?" Jack asked incredulously, sharing a look with the Doctor.

The Doctor looked unsure of everything, glancing repeatedly at Rose.

"Most of the Seurs are engineered. Vain lot that they are, they wanted absolute perfection, for their children to be intended for certain purposes. No, I'm afraid there truly are only a few of their family capable of pulling this off." Marron replied reluctantly. He then peeked up at the Doctor, waiting for the Time Lord to look over at him before he spoke. "The constable I spoke to said there was a man in the theater that helped settle the crowd who told his men what to look for, listen for. You know at least more of the things that took her than anyone on Leatis. Please, tell me you can help me."

"I can certainly try." The Doctor replied, uncrossing his arms and putting his hands on his hips.

"And would you only 'try' if it were your daughter?" He asked in a small voice, gesturing to Rose.

Her jaw went slack, eyebrows shooting for her hairline. She looked to the Doctor, hoping there was no possibility that he would ever let _anyone_ really think that. He seemed to be stuck somewhere between mortified and outraged.

"I'm not his daughter." She she finally managed to choke out, much to the surprise of Marron. "I'm his … well, I'm, ah, his, ah…."

She said "companion", though she wasn't sure that was all there really was to it. He said "partner" quietly, barely making eye contact when she looked over. Jack declared her the Doctor's "virginal fiancee" with gleeful amusement that she would properly punish him for later. It would be easy enough to tell the bar tender that Jack was lacking the appropriate equipment for any of his promised escapades.

"Well," Marron said, getting both the Doctor's and Rose's attention once again. "If your lady … friend, whatever, was taken under such measures, that her _life_ was in the balance, you would do more than simply 'try', wouldn't you?"

"In a heart beat." The Doctor said without a second hesitation, his voice dark with threat.

She knew that, he'd proven it, but didn't it still send a thrill through her to hear it. Just as it did when he looked her in the eye over a screen and stated that he was coming to save her from the Daleks.

The tiny man flinched, but straightened up to look taller after a moment. "Then help me. I don't know who you are, Doctor, or what it is you do, but I sense you live by the oaths of your name sake. I need help, and I ask it of you. Please."

The Doctor smirked. "You just said the two words I can't turn down." He stepped toward mister Marron, dropped a hand on his shoulder. "I'll help get your daughter back, but in the meantime I need you to keep an open mind. There are supposedly people out there looking to get what they think is theirs, and they believe that's Noel, maybe even Leatis. If you can think of anyone, anyone at all, who may be against both you and the Seurs than let me know. Until then, hold tight."

Marron smiled, sighing with relief. "Thank you."

The Doctor nodded before taking one step backward then turning to head toward the door. Just as Rose and Jack made to follow, he paused, looking at Mister Marron over his shoulder. "And Charles, I know. What you're going through, I know what it feels like." And on that note, he turned and left with Rose and Jack following right behind him.

They headed out for the carriage, Jack jogging to catch up after collecting his coat and hat. The Doctor hesitated in his step for just a moment as they approached their ride, but continued on. He opened the door, waving Rose inside, helping her do so with a hand hold as he had helped her out. Jack moved around to the other side, and once the three were all settled in, the Doctor patted the wall across from them. The carriage started moving.

"Something about that guy didn't sit well with me." Jack said, moving his hat around in his hands. "Never asked for ID, went on word of mouth. Who asks a random set of strangers who just happen upon their door to help them find their daughter?"

"A desperate man." The Doctor said without ever missing a beat. "A man with more money than brains, and an overly trusting nature. That's Marron. Pictures on the wall? Noted that there was a pair of women in a few of the business ones who looked suspiciously like Hans. Not exactly, a little more homely, noses that could almost match my own, but enough that with a change of surname Marron would have never noted he was letting the enemy in. He trusts what he sees, he doesn't bother to look deeper. 'S why he's convinced that we'll find Clara-Marie among the Seurs still."

"Surprised you aren't finding this a bit too, I dunno, domestic for your liking." Rose treaded carefully, keeping the tease light so not to offend as well as to allow for her question to be taken seriously.

The Doctor looked at her as if he wondered if she could handle the answer, looking her over as if she had some kind of invisible gauge visible only to Time Lords to tell when something may be too much for her.

He turned, looked out the window. "Know what it's like to be a father worrying for their child. Been there before, 's not pleasant." Rose tensed at his harsh, clipped tone, unsure if he was being literal or simply saying he thinks of her in that capacity after all. "Was a grandfather too, if you were curious."

"Seriously?" Jack asked conversationally while Rose processed yet another impossible thing for her to wrap her head around. "Which body?"

"First." The Doctor replied, and that did give Rose some relief, although it was quickly followed by a wave of guilt. He was nine hundred years old, possibly older he'd said, so why would it surprise her that he'd had children. But hearing that it was so long ago, that made her feel terrible. Even more that he was the last of his kind. She wondered, for just a moment, if he lost them in the war or long before.

"Ah," Jack said, and Rose turned and shook her head minutely before he could ask the inevitable follow up to that question. He looked confused, glanced to the Doctor, then back to her, and suddenly he seemed to remember. Nodding his head once, Jack cleared his throat. "So do we have any idea where to start looking?"

"Will in a moment." The Doctor said casually.

Did she want to know?

Rose Tyler did not consider herself a damsel in distress, and while she had seen enough strange and alien things at this point in her life, she still screamed when the saw arm crashed through the front wall of the carriage directly in front of her.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks to the readers, reviewers, favoriters, and followers.

 **annabethfan15, Eagler Hawke, Sommerlee (** there will be lots of back and forth in this one **), TiaKisu (** Thanks for noticing the reference ;) **), DuShuZhi, Loca8892 (** oh yes, he's immortal **), and EmmaKathy** , thanks for leaving word.

The next chapter is, admittedly, very fluffy. "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die" kinda fluffy compared to what I usually do. You've been warned.


	4. Moments

For all the good it would do, the Doctor pushed her back into the seat with one hand while the other grabbed the wrist of the droid arm, fingers dangerously close to the teeth of the saw. He pushed it upward, lodging it directly into the ceiling just as the blade began to rotate. It easily cut a slot in the roof of the carriage, and the Doctor had to struggle to keep the arm from coming back down toward them. Peeking through the widened hole in the wall, Rose could see their driver had been replace by a droid. Still in a seating position, the droid turned it's head a hundred-eighty degrees. The lifeless eyes bore into hers, and yet it didn't stir fear like she imagined it should have.

With the Doctor trying to keep the saw away from them with both hands now, and Jack climbing out of the carriage while it was in motion, Rose reached into the Doctor's jacket pocket and pulled out the sonic. Having used it enough times herself, she flipped through the settings without much effort, found the one the Doctor used on wires, and pointed up at the saw. It stuttered, sparked, then stopped, and she caught the overly animated confusion on the droid's face before Jack knocked it off the seat. There was a loud crash outside the carriage, and she heard Jack commanding the horse to slow down and stop as the Doctor jumped out of the other door. She waited until Jack had the carriage completely still before attempting to move, finding the Doctor kneeling in the snow beside the pile of cogs, springs, and metal limbs.

Now that the adrenaline from panic was easing up, Rose stood over the Doctor, hands on her hips, glaring down at him. "Lemme guess, knew it was a droid?"

"Heard it ticking." He admitted as he picked up the head. "Thought it odd, figured it was the horse."

"Seriously?"

"Right, shoulda known better." He said more solemnly, looking up and finally meeting her gaze with apologies in his eyes. In an instant, she forgave him. He always looked so broken and lost when he gave her that look, like he was expecting to hear it was the final straw and she was leaving. He nodded, understanding the silent acceptance her letting her hands fall to her side suggested, and examined the head. "Doubt these particular droids have independent thought, not like the ones we've encountered before. They can be teleported in and out of an area, but I imagine it's only short range." He got to his feet. "Swing by the TARDIS, grab what I'd need to run a trace, and come morning we should be able to locate who's causing all this trouble, get Clara-Marie home in time for tea with a day to spare." He beamed ear to ear, looking between she and Jack as the former came up beside him.

"So if you're swinging by the TARDIS, why can't you just move it closer to the inn?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and looking a little smug. "Don't need to stay there if the TARDIS is closer."

"Already paid for the room, Jack, might as well stay in it." The Doctor countered, heading back toward the carriage.

"Yeah, but if the TARDIS was closer, you two could have the suite to yourselves." Jack suggested, raising his voice in a likely effort to make sure that the Time Lord and the locals at the outskirts of the village would have heard him clearly.

While Rose turned the shade of her namesake, the Doctor paused in his step and looked back at Jack with confused frown and a glint in his eye. "Why would I want the second room? Slept just yesterday. Good for another couple weeks, me." He smirked as Jack sighed with exasperation. As the Captain bowed his head, running a hand over his face, the Doctor flashed Rose a wink that had her giggling quietly to herself like a loon. "Here," the Doctor said as she and Jack caught up to him at the carriage. He tossed Jack the head. "Hold that."

"Why me?" Jack asked.

The Doctor arched a brow, "You wanna drive back to town, then?"

"Stopped us, didn't I? You're always the driver. Maybe it's time you take a break." He tossed the Doctor back the head before climbing up in the driver's seat. "Besides, proper footmen drive their masters and their chaste fiancees around, don't they?"

"Not gonna let that go, are you?" The Doctor asked as he helped Rose into the carriage. "How about this? Next time, you can be her brother."

She could see Jack thanks to the renovations the droid made to the carriage wall, though not well enough to see his face. "Never get to be the bride, do I?" Jack called back through the hole in the wall as the Doctor climbed in and closed the door.

"I let you steal a kiss, drink free. Now hush up and drive."

With that last tease, Jack shook his head, shoulders shaking just before he flicked the reins and the horse continued on. After a minute, the Doctor tucked the droid head against his side and draped his other arm around Rose's shoulder. Without a second thought she leaned her head against him.

"Don't tell him I said this, but it's kinda nice to be chauffeured for a change." He said to Rose. "Better than that trip to 10 Downing, this is."

"I can hear you." Jack called back with no malice.

Rose chuckled. "I think you hurt his feelings a little." She said quietly, leaning in slightly toward the Doctor.

"'Bout time he pulled his own weight anyway." The Doctor smirked.

"What are you on about? Jack does more than I do." She turned to face him, not realizing that he hadn't retreated back from his earlier incline toward her. His breath was on her lips, and she had hard time keeping eye contact with his mouth so temptingly close. It was entirely unfair that Jack could be so bold and she couldn't even steady her heart beat with this sort of proximity. She'd never admit how jealous she'd been that he just grabbed the Doctor and pressed his lips to his even if it was meant to be a goodbye.

What did they feel like? Soft, something told her, and cool like the rest of him.

She didn't know when he suddenly became guarded, body stiff and eyes revealing some kind of inner battle. She noticed his gaze flicker to her lips quite briefly, and Rose placed a hand over his left heart to feel the vibrations of it through his jumper.

A bump had the Doctor's head hit the roof, her half stumbling back in the seat, and Jack cursing quietly in the front.

"Sorry," Jack called back, but neither she nor the Doctor said anything. He was too busy rubbing the top of his head, and Rose was too eager to not have to look the Time Lord in the eye when she realized how foolish she almost made herself out to be.

Rose resettled in her seat and turned away from the Doctor, Rose took in the scene outside her window. The change in the color of the sky was breath taking, morphing from gold to deep purple with a spectrum of blue-ish green to bridge the color shift. Only one of the suns could be spotted in the sky, and it was hanging quite low. They wouldn't be getting back to the inn until late, it would seem. The first day gone, and the passing of time made her heart ache for the poor girl who was probably scared without a clue where she was or why she was taken. But soon they'd get her back. The Doctor had said so, and if there was one thing all these new discoveries about the man hadn't changed it was her unrelenting faith in the Time Lord absently pulling her closer.

~DWDWDW~

The droid head was the best part he could have picked up, but who ever was controlling them had made sure the second a droid was broken that the short range teleport would burn out. As much as the Doctor wanted to rage against Jack for being the one to cause the damage, he knew it was pointless. He'd have done the same, the Doctor knew, and it did no one any good for him to get pointlessly angry. Rose was the one placed in the worst amount of danger simply because he was so uncomfortable around Jack. He should have known it wasn't the horse, what could the horse have done? Even if it tried to pull them into a river, or a building, or anything they could have escaped it far more easily than have thing droid in the driver's seat.

He roughly dragged his fingers over his hair in frustration, allowing the luke warm water to run down his back in an attempt to sooth him. They'd been back in the inn for a while, and after having tea and making stilted conversation, both his companions turned in for the night. Rose looked exhausted, likely crashing from the earlier adrenaline, and Jack looked as though he just knew the Doctor didn't care to spend much one on one time with him.

The Doctor didn't need the shower, not really, but it was a minor comfort he could use.

It was an adventure, trying to find Clara-Marie, and that in itself was a bit of normal. While they were looking around he could pretend that everything was the way it always had been. But that wasn't ever going to happen, was it? Jack was immortal, and in such a way that he irritated his time senses. May not be as sharp as they had been, but they still knew to avoid fixed points like Jack. Yet he was likely the reason he and Rose made such a quick recovery, and while he could sense the TARDIS's occasional desire to be rid of the Captain he also knew the old girl was too fond of him and too grateful to do so.

The Doctor didn't dare think of what Rose might've done to herself. She'd been a goddess, who knew what she might have altered. Yet nothing was off with his precious girl, not that he could tell. Only change pertaining to her was his own problem of keeping his lips off hers and his hands mostly to himself. He'd known kissing her once would undo him, which is why he only did it when he thought he was about to die. He didn't expect he'd come out on the other side unchanged except for wanting what he shouldn't have more than ever.

There was a slight influx of heat from the water, and his magnificently stupid Time Lord brain instantly turn it to Rose's hands trailing down his back. He shut off the taps before that thought turned into something more than it should. He didn't trust that a certain Captain wouldn't innocently walk into the washroom.

Toweled off and redressed, he returned to the sitting room and plopped down on the sofa in the middle, stretching out over its length. He stared into the flames of the indoor fire pit that crackled comfortingly. Debating what he could do to pass the time until Rose and Jack were awake, he considered everything from simply staying where he was and waiting them out to going back to the TARDIS and hope neither caught him.

That consideration for leaving the suite disappeared the second he heard the door to the right unlatch. Her footsteps were nearly inaudible as she came toward him, and without a word Rose laid down on top of him, her head resting on his chest between his hearts. Her slender arms wrapped around his torso, giving him a quick squeeze before relaxing a bit. She was in her modern jimjams, part of the package the Captain put together for Rose inside the trans dimensional clutch. The TARDIS must have provided it for her, because the Doctor certainly hadn't own anything like that that he knew of. And he had to say that he was at least grateful that Jack packed Rose's most modest sleep clothes. That, or the TARDIS hid the others.

"Perfectly good bed in your room." He reminded her, though he didn't really want her to leave. She was warm in a way the fire could never be, penetrating his layers down to his soul.

"You're not in it." She said bluntly, honestly, and he wrapped his arms around her.

"Could be," He said without hesitation. They hadn't shared a bed much before Game Station. It was always the couch of the library, where they'd pretend she simply wanted to be read to and would fall asleep in the process. And he, of course, would humor her and find reasons to continue holding her long after she drifted off. But a bed was sacred, it was reserved for close calls with Daleks, for hold off nightmares of being used as a avatar in a video game, or terrifying aliens in Russia. Beds meant acknowledging that in that moment they needed one another more than anything. And after Game Station that need was becoming permanent.

"Didn't think you'd want to. 'Cause of Jack." She said softly. "Not the TARDIS, no way to hide from him."

"Don't think we're doing much hiding out here." He smirked against her hair as he titled his head forward and breathed in that lovely scent of Rose. Her humanity mixed with vanilla and subtle banana of her shampoo. A real banana smell, too, not the strong artificial kind found in 21st century products. He'd noticed that change, after the Blitz, when it replaced citrus. He couldn't remember where they'd stopped for a quick spell, but he did recall her cheeky grin as she returned with a decent sized paper bag and promising the credits were well spent.

They were.

She hummed a laugh, making him smile just a touch more. "May not be. But's easier to jump to what mighta happened if we stay behind closed doors." She craned her head up at him, smirking as she rested her chin on his chest.

"Closed door already," He gestured to Jack's room behind him.

"Not so private though." She countered.

"Propositioning me?" He teased. He almost wished he hadn't when she shifted up his body a bit, gazing into his eyes in the low light.

She did that thing where she studied every bit of his face with her eyes, his hearts swelling and his chest tightening at the gentle affection within them. She reached up with one hand, running her fingers along every bit of his face in slow, deliberate motions. He closed his eyes at the sensation, her caress too adoring for him to feel he had a right to see what was in her eyes as her touch lingered. As her fingers raked through his close-clipped hair, she pressed her forehead to his. The length of his nose meant hers was automatically touching his, but he still not dare open his eyes.

"What would you have looked like if you changed?" She asked him.

"I dunno." He replied. "No control over it. Sometimes … sometimes what's happening around me just before I do can influence it. Look like a soldier, 'cause that's what I became. Last survivor of the Time War."

"So facing all those Daleks, would that mean you'd have looked about the same?" She asked, and he had to pull back a touch and peek to see if she really looked as scared as she sounded. Her eyes begged to be reassured, and she worried her bottom lip with her teeth as she nervously awaited his response.

"Last thing I thought I'd do before my death was save you," He admitted that much, causing her brow to furrow. "Wouldn't have been a bad way to go."

"Would have been a good death, then." She said with a touch of playfulness to her shaky voice.

"A fantastic death," He reassured, his hand reaching up and cupping her cheek of it's own accord. "But, suppose, probably would have changed into someone you'd like. So you'd stay."

Rose smiled, small at first before it grew into the one he loved so much, and he couldn't help the grin he gave in return.

"Then I guess we'd have had nothing to worry about then." She said. "'Cause you wouldn't have changed."

"Stay the same, would I?" He asked, and she nodded. "This daft ol' face?"

She pressed her forehead to his again, "Not daft, 's beautiful." She breathed, eyes falling shut the second after she'd said it. Her fingers on his head, which had stopped their ministrations so early on, resumed their carding through the short strands. His own large, calloused fingers found their way into Rose's hair, keeping them pressed together from both sides. "Doctor," She sighed, and he shivered at the way it sounded.

"Rose." She opened her eyes, and he wanted to fall into those orbs, expand the intimacy of the moment into something physical.

A key scrapped against the lock of the door, and both snapped out of the moment as he slid out from beneath her, standing in front of the sofa. He heard Rose pad around behind him followed by the tell-tale sound of the fire poker being lifted off the stand.

The door to the suite opened.

"Where the hell did you go?" The Doctor asked an extremely disheveled Jack Harkness as he came through the door. If it weren't for the blood stained tear of his waist coat and shirt, the Doctor was pretty certain he wouldn't want to know the answer.

"Making progress" Jack stated. "Turns out we need to be looking at the theater."

* * *

 **A/N:** Early? Yeah. But it's getting a bit more brisk out, and sometimes we could all use a good Fluff piece to warm us. And, let's face it, there's hardly any plot progress here.

Thank you to the readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers.

 **annabethfan15, a country mouse, Sommerlee (** we're a little under half-through at this point, so not long **), BennAddict Holmes, TiaKisu, Loca8892 (** How different S2 would be? That a hint? ;)), and TheKitchenMistress (I agree about Moffat. **)**

Thanks for leaving word, as always.

Likely closer to the end of the week for the next update so long as I don't get too eager like I did with this one.


	5. Confessions

Jack was going to lose it. At least if they had stayed on the TARDIS he could work off some frustration. He'd been making a habit of allowing the Doctor to make some sort of excuse the moment Rose left whatever room they had been in just before bed to leave himself, and then Jack would go to the room the TARDIS made for him. A work out room, where he could punch, pull, lift, and essentially punish his body in his second favorite strenuous activity. Yes, sometimes she dropped weights on his foot, moved something further out of reach, usually made odd "flinches" around him from time to time, though it was always with an apologetic hum. But it was still better than suffering through the tension left in the wake of the couple who weren't really. But tonight was different, and since he was finally on a planet where he wouldn't merely be a third wheel, he was about to find someone to engage in his favorite strenuous activity with. There was a certain ballerino who may have given his heart to a fellow dancer, but Jack had been around two people in love and doing nothing about it long enough to know what it looked like. To him, it meant Hans was free game, since he didn't seem to be getting it from whom he wanted.

He snuck out while the Doctor was in the loo. He wanted to announce his intentions of heading out by popping his head in and shout a farewell to the Time Lord under the water, but he doubted that would get him far. It didn't help that the Doctor already seemed skiddish around him, more so than the TARDIS had been. He wanted to try and fix things, not make them worse, and he wondered if maybe giving the Doctor and Rose their space would help that. Maybe they'd finally get some relief themselves. It had always been bad between them, the two being their worst after adventures. Once they'd all return to the TARDIS, the pair would go saunter off together and snuggle on a sofa in the library but nothing more. When he'd found them in a tangled heap in front of the TARDIS at the Game Station, Jack had smiled at first, thinking he was about to catch them get in a celebratory shag. When they didn't move he sprang in to action, terrified they didn't make it. But after Rose and the Doctor both recovered from whatever happened, the romantic tension got worse, let alone the sexual variety. Still no kissing, barely more contact than a lingering hug, their flirting and gazes filled with longing went up a few more levels than what Jack thought he could handle. It'd only been five days, but it was driving him incredibly batty.

So while the two of them kept themselves in denial (though he supposed it could have been the Doctor _and_ Rose in there), he was going to scratch an itch he hadn't gotten to satisfy in a long while. Those two were corrupting him, what with their high morals and secured trousers.

He first made his way to the tavern, looking around the near empty room and not finding the object of his conquest. So he did the logical thing: he headed for the bar.

Miguel, the bar keep with the great smile and decent bottom, turned to Jack and flushed. "Already said my wife wouldn't go for it." He said in a hushed tone, glancing behind him as if said wife was watching.

"I'm actually wondering if you'd know where I could find Hans Seurs." Jack asked, leaning on the counter and giving Miguel his most charming smile.

"He's usually found at the theater, dancing. Always dancing, that one." He replied, glancing over his shoulder again, and this time Jack craned his head a bit to see what Miguel was checking for.

Two figures were sitting in one the darkest corners of the bar, top hats tilted just so to ensure light didn't hit their faces. The were leaned in to one another, likely whispering.

He realized then that it was who Miguel was speaking of earlier in the day, and the prospect of the conquest suddenly didn't seem quite so appealing. The Doctor was acting strange around him, and maybe this might help put things right. Follow the two men, or better, go right up to them and demand to know where the girl was.

"Don't think about it, Jack," Miguel warned in a hushed tone as one of the men in the shadows seemed to turn toward him. "Whatever the case, it's not worth your life. And I can tell you, your life would be gone in a blink if you confront them."

"Possibly," He wagered, reassessing the possible danger. "Hans is in the theater?" He turned back to Miguel who seemed to relax as he nodded. "Alright then, guess if my friends come down looking for me, you know where I'll be." He thanked Miguel with a wink and tip of his top hat before stepping outside.

There wasn't much difference in temperature between the day and night, which was a nice surprise, as was how the streets were still quite active. With a smile to passing group of ladies, and a tip of his top hat that made them giddy, Jack started to make his way to the theater.

Shortly after his walk commenced, hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he had the oddest feeling he was being watched. Jack turned, looked about, not seeing anything all that unusual but not feeling any more settled. He moved forward a few more steps, then realized he heard something … off. Faintly, he heard ticking. Jack paused, taking off his hat and looking as if he was meaning to examine it. His hand then moved very slowly and carefully to the gun at his hip. He knew the Doctor hated it, but after the Game Station it was like a crutch. He felt the need to have it. He didn't draw it, but Jack did rest his hand on it.

He then turned sharply, finding a saw blade and a gun hand pointed at him. The droids were not the people from the tavern. For one, one was dressed as a woman. Another, the male with the saw arm didn't have a top hat.

"You will cease." It said, it's voice barely containing a trace of robotics.

"Cease what?" Jack challenged, trying to step back. They moved with him.

"You will cease." The male one repeated.

"Can't do that. But my friends and me? We can help you. Just let the girl go."

Both droids tilted their heads to the side. "You destroyed droid four."

"Your buddy that tried to kill us? Very likely. But listen …." Jack was cut of when the saw started turning. "Hey! We can talk about this, can't we?"

"You have destroyed droid 4, we will then destroy you. You will cease."

Jack drew his gun but Missus droid shot it away from him before he had a chance to squeeze the trigger. The scorch of the bullet had him wince, stumble, bump into a lamp post just as he heard the whir of the saw blade and knew it was too late. People on the streets were now running about, screaming, fleeing the scene. So where was the Doctor? Why didn't he hear any of this?

Part of him was pissed he somehow survived the Daleks only to be killed by mere robots a little over a week later. The other part was regretful that he wasn't going to have the kiss of the Doctor or Rose on his lips to send him off this time.

" _EXTERMINATE."_ The scene replayed in his mind in some sort of sick, minimalist flash of his life as the saw cut into him.

" _I kinda figured that."_ He saw the white life for only a second before it turned gold and he was thrust into blackness.

When he his eyes opened this time, the droids weregone, and people surrounded him with mesmerized stares. He wondered for a moment it maybe he just hallucinated, that the droids didn't attack at all and he was just somehow so on edge he walked into a lamp post. Highly unlikely for a time agent such as himself, but he supposed it could happen. But one look down at his formal attire, at the blood stains around the hole shredded into his waistcoat and oxford, he knew what he experienced was real.

He died. But he didn't.

He got to his feet, and the locals slowly started to clap before all out applauding. They smiled widely, some women with hands over their hearts and smiles of relief. Men shouting about an amazing stunt, brilliant trick. Credits were being tossed into his top hat which sat top down in the snow beside him, a slight spatter of blood on the rim. Jack realized they thought it was all an act, a morbid kind of street magic that ended with the droids disappearing.

So he played it up. With a big grin, he bent low and plucked his top hat from the snow covered ground. "Thanks!" He called out. "Now, been trying to improve upon this trick, so tell me, how long was it after the droids disappeared that I woke up?"

Various shouts of time were thrown at him, but no one guessed more than twenty seconds, and the average seemed to be ten.

Dead for about ten seconds.

"Thank you. Now, please, return to your festivities." He declared with his best Harkness grin, holding until everyone had left him be. He swallowed hard, terrified, shaken, and more certain than ever that who ever was in control of the droids were the two men in the tavern. What was more, they didn't want him looking into the theater.

He headed back to the inn and made his way back up to the room, sparing a glance inside the tavern and finding the mystery men gone.

Climbing the stairs two at a time, Jack fished his key out from his coat pocket and fitted it into the door.

The sight on the other side had him groan quietly. The Doctor was standing protectively in front of the couch where Rose sat with a fire poker as her weapon of choice. Her hair was teased too much on one side, the Doctor's clothes a little mussed, and while he stared coldly at Jack at first it became entirely guilt filled a beat later.

"Where the hell did you go?" The Doctor asked, his voice gruff and disbelieving. Apparently if he was going to catch the Time Lord and the human on the couch it should have been from his room. Guess neither thought to check if he was already asleep.

"Making progress" Jack stated. "Turns out we need to be looking at the theater."

~DWDWDW~

"What makes ya say that?" The Doctor asked, crossing his arms and looking down his nose at Jack. He should have known that the conman, former or otherwise, would sneak out and do something on his own. Couldn't just leave it all well enough alone, could he?

"I stepped out for a drink, thought maybe I could chat up that ballerino, maybe help him through his troubling time." Jack started to explain.

"You mean a man who is spoken for by the very woman we're tryin' to find?" Rose asked indignantly as the clink of her replacing the poker sounded behind the Doctor. A second later she was standing beside him, mimicking his stance, making the pair of them look like parents lecturing an unruly teenager.

"I wasn't gonna pressure him or anything." Jack replied, matching Rose's tone as he put his hands out to his sides. "But that's not the point. Bar keeper at the tavern told me I could find him at the theater, so I was gonna head there. But before I did I spotted the two chatters in a corner booth."

"And you chased tail instead of coming up and telling us?" The Doctor rolled his eyes, mumbling a couple colorful words in Gallifreyan that fit Jack and his priorities to a tee. With a huff, he looked back at Jack, waiting for an answer.

"Best that I didn't." Jack replied, glaring the Time Lord down. "I was attacked by a pair of droids on the street. Droids who recognized me as the one who destroyed their buddy."

"That how you got that blood on your shirt?" Rose's voice shook, and the Doctor peered down from the corner of his eye to see Rose looking intensely at the blood-stained tear.

Panic started to rise as the Doctor looked between Rose and Jack, hoping that the conversation was not leading where it decidedly looked to be. He wasn't ready yet. Wasn't ready to confess Jack's transformation, how it happened, what else had happened in that span of time Rose held the Vortex within her.

"Yeah," Jack said, and the Doctor's hearts began to pick up speed. He wanted to take Rose's hand, run back to the TARDIS, Clara-Marie and Rose's state of dress be damned. His fingers twitched, but Rose's hand wasn't close by. "I, umm …." Jack looked lost, utterly and completely. "I died."

His respiratory bypass kicked in, his hearts beat out of sync. He looked to Rose once more from the corner of his eye, and saw her slack jawed and wide-eyed. And he moved, without thought, to stand slightly behind her should the news become too much.

"What?" She gasped out.

"I died, Rosie, I know I did. Had to have, there was no way out, no … no means to escape. Saw went into my chest and it was lights out. Only it wasn't, because then I was back. Just like I came back from being exterminated. Crowd thought it was some kind of magic trick." He said as he moved to the kitchenette counter and dumped a pile of credits from his top hat on to the counter. Jack then looked to the Doctor, placing his hat back on his head. "Any idea how that happened?" He asked with his hands on his hips, but not in an accusatory way.

He could lie, he was good at that when he needed to be. He was a coward, after all. The Rose turned to look at him, hope and desperation in her eyes, and he faltered. This woman was bad for him. Good, because she made him face himself, challenge his own decisions, stand up to him when need be. But she was bad for his self preservation. He did nearly die for her, after all. He'd do it again too.

"Have an idea." He told half truths. "But do we need to talk about that now? You said you were heading to the theater when you were attacked. Makes me think maybe that's where she is."

"Well we should go now," Rose said with determination, punctuated by a yawn. "I'll go get changed."

"Rose." The Doctor reached out, put a hand on her shoulder, stopped her from moving. "Ya haven't gotten any rest."

"Rest can wait, she's still out there, and now we've got a lead."

"We also have two days." Jack stepped in. "And frankly, after what just happened, I'm going to need a few hours to recoup." He said, taking off his top hat and moving it around with his hand. The eye contact he made was fleeting at best, and the Doctor knew he was going to have to give the Captain something more than "might have an idea".

"Alright," Rose said with a nod. She glanced to the Doctor, edging slowly toward her bedroom door before pausing and wringing her hands.

"Be there in a moment." He said with a grin, only half forced on, and Rose sent him a similar one in return before she glanced at Jack and bowed her head. She closed her door, and once it clicked shut he turned to Jack.

Who, of course, looked at him with a sly smirk. "Be there in a moment?" He taunted the Time Lord as he moved around to the sofa. "How long's that been going on?"

"Not what ya think, and it's none of your business." The Doctor snapped back, turning to face Jack with his arms crossed. He glanced at Rose's door, hoping she couldn't hear anything. "Whaddya wanna know?" He asked lowering his gruff voice a bit.

"What happened to me?" Jack asked with a brave voice.

The Doctor sighed, Jack's eyes betrayed more fear than his bravado would ever allow, and that broke him. He wasn't the only coward in the room.

"Rose." He said. When Jack's brow furrowed, his head titled a bit, the Doctor came around and sat on the other end of the couch. "Sent her away, remember? Came back, and took the heart of the TARDIS in her to do that. Whole Vortex swirling around her her tiny human head with all her human emotions in control. Loves ya, Jack, and she could control all of time. Knew you were dead, brought ya back. 'Cept she did it too well, made you a fixed point by accident."

Jack's eyes darted to the door. "Does she know?" He asked so softly a human would have thought he mouthed it.

The Doctor shook his head. "Doesn't remember anything after getting home 'cept being desperate to get back."

"So what else did she do?" Jack asked, leaning toward the Doctor so his voice would carry better.

"Turned the Daleks to dust." He shrugged with one shoulder, shaking his head. "Dunno what else."

"How did she stop?" He asked.

The Doctor swallowed the lump in his throat, his ears going pink as he looked at the fire pit. "Took it outta her." He said flatly. "Nearly killed me."

"The healing coma."

"Shoulda regenerated." The Doctor looked Jack square in the eye, finally putting voice to one of the thoughts swimming in his head. "Coulda put her down after she passed out, but I held on instead, let the Vortex outta me and into the TARDIS before checking on her. Felt her breathing in my arms, heart beat against my chest, knew she was still alive. Suppose it really wouldn't have made too much difference, in the end, 'cept it did. Seconds, Jack. I can sense the time line abandoned because I didn't hold on to the vortex for a few seconds longer."

"Are you thinking she influenced it somehow?" Jack asked.

"More like wondering what she did to herself." He said softly. "Brought you back from the dead, probably made this face stick around, so what was in it for her? We gonna go back to London, find Pete Tyler still alive 'n' kickin'? Rose is good down to her core, but no human is entirely selfless, and she ain't an exception."

Jack barely seemed to ponder his next thought. "What if our being around was her being selfish?" He posed the question, and the Doctor could only arch a brow in return. "She loves us both, and if she could somehow, I dunno, see the future for a moment, maybe she didn't like what she saw if you regenerated? Maybe the next guy didn't like her so much?" The Doctor snorted. As if that was even a possibility. "I dunno, Doc. All I know is that girl loves you and she seemed devastated that you might've changed." He stood. "And speaking of changing, wish I thought to bring something for myself to wear for a quick nap."

"Not gonna go find another conquest?" The Doctor teased.

"You offering?"

"Still gotta buy me that drink, first."

"Tavern's down stairs."

"And Rose is in the next room. Can't sleep without me." He regretted the words the second they left his mouth.

Jack's eyes sparkled. "Bet she can't." He said, backing towards his room. "Let me know if you need some help getting her to sleep."

"Won't do." He said just before Jack entered his room.

With a huff, the Doctor turned to Rose's side, hesitating at the door. He could just stay out in the sitting area, let her fall asleep waiting for him. He could say he went in after she already dozed off and left before she woke. He could, but his hand was already on the handle, he was already stepping through the door, and it was already closing behind him. A spot for him was marked out by the turned down blankets, and the absence of Rose from that side. The moonslight came through the window, casting that empty side in a silver glow like a beacon. He toed off his boots, dropped his jacket on the foot of the bed, moved softly along the hardwood floors to slip in beside her.

He didn't pull up the covers, nor did he move to hold her. He waited on his back, watching her form, wondering if she'd shift toward him or had already drifted off.

"Been with you a while now," Her voice was eerily steady, and he tensed up at what that would mean. "Know you don't always tell me things, and might never. Took forever for you to tell me 'bout your people, your planet, and only found out last week you change to a new man when you're near death." She snorted. "Found out today you had a kid once, which means you likely had a …." She didn't say the word, but he knew what she was avoiding saying. "Know what I do 'cause I wait you out." He waited as she rolled around to face him. He was only partially surprised to see her eyes gaze at him with resignation. There was frustration and a bit of anger, sadness and heart break, but they danced on the out skirts as if afraid to be seen. "Knew you and Jack would talk when I left. You two aren't so subtle in your exchanges as you might think." Her gaze dropped to the empty space between them. "When were you gonna tell me?"

She deserved honesty, because as much as he hated that she eavesdropped, he knew she still had the right to know what she'd done. "Dunno."

"So never?" She snapped.

"Not never, just … not right yet." He huffed. "You were gonna see your Mum and Mickey, they'd have asked how destroying my TARDIS worked out, and you'd have at least known that much." His voice got progressively louder, more bitter.

"I did not destroy the TARDIS!" Rose cried out, pounding the space between them with her fist before tensing. "Wait, I didn't, right? She'd've never have let me do that."

"Did something to get to her heart," He retorted, rolling on to his side to look at her properly. "Which, by the way, was a stupid idea. Foolish and reckless, it was. Nearly got yourself killed."

"Well you saved me, didn't ya?" She pointed out.

"Might not've." He countered gruffly.

"Might not've cared." She snapped back, and his hearts clenched at the thought. "Universe could go on without me. Just an estate girl with no A-levels, me. Going nowhere 'nd have nothing to offer. But you? You die, and there'd be no one left to fix things. You're too important, Doctor. The Universe needs you 'cause you save it."

"And you save me." He said without thinking. Words died in her throat as her mouth froze around the sounds that would never be heard. She stared, eyes wide. "Oh, run outta things to say then? Good, 'bout time you quit your yapping and got some rest. Want us to go after that girl so badly, you're gonna need it." He huffed, throwing himself back on his back. He put his hands behind his head and stared pointedly at the ceiling. A better move would have been to get up and leave the room, but he wasn't moving for fear of the consequences.

He counted the seconds that ticked by, timed them with the count of Rose's breaths as they started to calm. He was hyper aware of where she was, and but he refused to be to one to shift first.

Turned out he didn't have to wait long, though while he expected for her to turn over, put her back to him and affectively end their new night routine, she slid toward him. She rested her head on his chest, right over the spot between his hearts like she'd rested every other night. One arm slung around his torso with the other tucked under, she snuggled in.

He suddenly didn't know what to do with his hands, or her, or why he was there and not running away. He didn't get how she was angry with him for keeping her in the dark, yet still put her arms around him as if she actually did need him to sleep.

"Gotta stop hiding things from me, Doctor. Said we were partners, yeah?"

"Yeah." He said instantly.

"I can take it, all of it." She said with a yawn, burying her face in his jumper. "Not going anywhere. Stuck with me."

His lips twitched in a grin despite the worry nagging at him. His arms came down and around her, holding her where she was, equally afraid of letting go and clinging too tight.

"Wake me up in a few hours, yeah?" She said, and he could hear the heavy sound of sleep in her voice. He could tell by her breathing patterns that she was out seconds later.

He said nothing, not even to himself, as he started an internal countdown to four hours from the moment she drifted off.

* * *

 **A/N:** As always, thank you so much for reading, favoriting, following, and/or reviewing.

 **Sommerlee, annabethfan15, TheKitchenMistress, BennAddict Holmes (** agreed with your entire statement **), Nayru Von Karma (** I have seen others, but his not regenerating usually gets glossed over **), and Loca8892 (** I'm considering it post _Until the End_ **)**

Always love hearing from you all, even if it's just a few words.

So I'm predicting this will be 9, 10 chapters tops. I can't really give a posting schedule because of this. Random and frequent, does that work?


	6. Chaotic Calm

About five hours later, the Doctor found himself leading Rose and Jack down the empty streets through a light snow fall. Their feet crunched the snow slowly covering the sidewalks, and he strained to hear past it and their breaths for any tell-tale ticking. The theater was about a ten minute walk away from the inn when the streets were crowded and they'd have to weave their way through the square. He didn't want the shaved off time to make him careless and believe they'd get there without much hassle.

"Anything we should worry about when we get there?" Jack asked, grating on the Doctor's already high strung nerves.

"Your yapping and giving us away, yeah." He snapped back in a near whisper.

"Hey, 's an honest question." Rose said, her hands fisting the skirts of her dress to make walking easier.

He looked down at her tennis shoe covered feet. "Gave an honest answer. And why you wearing that thing?" He snapped and gestured to the dress.

"Rather me face droids in my jimjams?" She snapped back. "Fought 'em off in a dress with much less experience, pretty sure I could do it again."

Well he couldn't argue that, could he? So he huffed, shook his head, and tried not to let on how proud he actually was of her and all she'd learned and accomplished since starting her travels with him. He could save that for a stolen moment later when this whole thing was cleared up.

Her hand slipped into his, gave it a squeeze, then slide out. He looked down at her briefly, catching that determination she carried when facing down a threat. Shoulders squared, chin tilted, eyes forward, she made him smile for a moment if only to himself. His Rose, his Bad Wolf, he could see it now.

"Think we should slip in the back or break in through the front?" Jack asked, and it actually surprised the Doctor that they were almost there already.

He paused, his companions pausing with him, and he looked up at the building as if he could see inside it. He took in how many stories (two, maybe two and a half), the likely exits (he'd guess four), and the likelihood of where they'd be keeping the girl (somewhere hidden but obvious).

"Through the front, but stay on your toes. Don't know how many droids these shadow men got." He replied, pulling out his sonic and heading toward the front.

After a quick flick through the settings, the Doctor shone the little blue light over the lock. That satisfying whirring noise was proceeded by the click of the lock, and he pushed open the doors. "Immortals first." The Doctor said with a put on grin.

"Age before beauty, Doc." Jack countered.

"Oi, what you trying to say, Harkness?" He retorted indignantly.

Rose sighed, "You two should just whip'em out already, and settle it like the boys you're acting like." She gathered her skirts and stepped inside, going a few feet before waiting for them with an impatient glare.

"You could always be the judge." Jack quipped. "In case it needs careful consideration."

"Never gonna happen, Jack." She said firmly.

The Doctor snorted to himself.

"Never say never, Rosie." Jack said as he stepped inside. The Doctor followed, glancing around the lobby for corridors or staircases that looked like they could lead somewhere promising.

His blood ran cold when his eyes spotted a poster on the wall for an off-world show.

 _Danse du Mechant Loup: An original production._

Dance of the Bad Wolf.

No.

No, no, no, no, no. He whipped his head to where Rose seemed to be taking in their surrounding, casually shooting down whatever suggestive comments the Captain made.

It was over, wasn't it? Had to be. She let go of the Vortex.

" _I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."_

Should they have come here before that happened? Or was it another byproduct of her inability to control the power she wielded, throwing her words too far into the future?

Or maybe, just maybe, it was another warning. She saw all of time and space, maybe something else was out there waiting to pounce on them.

He'd been watching Rose so intently that he noticed the second she tensed, her head tilting slightly to the side. "Ya hear that?" she asked, and he strained to listen.

Ticking, like a clock. He looked around, not seeing any time pieces in the area.

"Rose," he said as quiet and steadily as he could. "Shift back toward Jack, will ya?" He asked, lifting his sonic carefully, taking large but slow steps toward her.

Rose blessedly did as she was told for once, and scurried as best she could back toward the immortal who gripped her shoulders the second she came into his range.

He met their eyes when he came up beside them, the ticking having grown steadily louder with each step. Rose and Jack both nodded, took deep steadying breaths, and waited.

The Doctor took another couple steps forward, to right around where Rose was standing when she noted the sound. He shifted his gaze, looking around the area for anything that could be a droid. It was difficult to pin point where the ticking was actually coming from, be it the acoustics of the building or a talent of deflection from the droid itself. He scanned one wall, then the other, turning only an infinitesimal amount to take it all in.

"Like playin' games, do ya?" He said with a steady, calm voice. He could still hear it without pause: tick, tick, tick, tick. "Hide 'n' seek, ready to pounce when we have our guard down?" Tick, tick, tick, tick. "Not much for games me, like getting right to the point when I can." He heard Jack snort before a grunting. He waited, listening to the ticking. "Don't got all night, ya know. Other places I'd much rather be."

"Yeah, I bet." Jack teased.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, shoulders slumping as he turned to face a cheeky Jack and a distinctly fed up Rose. "Oh put a cork in it for once, would ya? 'S gettin' old."

"Really, though." Rose huffed out, brushing a loose strand back behind her ear. When she caught his eye, her eyes twinkled for the few seconds she held it there.

"Barely tease you two." Jack countered, and the Doctor had to admit that that was the truth.

"Makes you look jealous." Rose teased.

"You're sleeping with him every night, how can I not be?" Jack countered, and it gave the Doctor a bolster of confidence when Rose smirked slyly.

He turned away, ready to unleash the stupid grin that threatened to break through, and coming face to face with serrated blade that would be better used on large hunting game than a Time Lord. "Oh, finally came outta hiding, did ya?" He stepped back in time with the tin-soldier droid stepping forward. "Just wanna have a little chat. Maybe you could tell me where to find the prima ballerina?"

"You will cease." It said with a very robotic voice.

"You weren't meant for more than one purpose, were you? Take the girl, job done. Could just shut yourself off." He took another step back, and let a tiny puff of air escape his lungs in relief when the droid didn't follow. "Where is she?"

"We have the girl, you will give us what we want." It repeated.

"What's it you want?" Rose asked, her voice only slightly higher than normal. The Doctor held firm, refusing to look over his shoulder at her as much as he wanted to. The droid didn't move, not even a flinch, but it also didn't say anything. "Well go on, then. Tell us. Can't meet demands we don't know what they are." She insisted, sounding a bit too much like her mother for the Doctor's liking. He wondered fleetingly if she could stop a droid with a Tyler slap alone.

"Demands are known." It stated, and the Doctor really didn't like how he could hear at least another three ticking patterns coming toward them.

"Tell us anyway." Jack said.

"Demands are known. Marron and Seurs will surrender."

"The Seurs?" The Doctor's frowned.

"Where's Hans?" Rose blurted.

A pause. "We have the boy, you will give us what we want."

Rose's yelp and a sudden crash got the Doctor's attention off the droid in front of him, and he barely managed to moved before the blade could do more than slice through layers of leather and wool, nicking his arm. He looked down at the wound before scowling at the droid. "You cut my jacket." He whinged. It took another swing at him that he dodged before lifting his sonic to the droid, flicking through the settings as quick as he could. What had Rose used the day before that at least hindered it.

"Rose, watch it." He heard Jack cry out, but he couldn't take his eyes off the droid in front of him for fear it might do more damage than wreck his favorite jacket.

He heard what he could only describe as a warrior cry before a large clang on metal on metal filled the air and cogs and gears burst across the floor. The droid who had him cornered turned its head in time to have it lopped off by a nineteen year old girl with an umbrella stand.

"Use the thing!" Rose yelled.

"What thing?" He yelled back turning to see Jack had another two droids coming after him, his only weapon one of the discarded umbrellas.

"The wire setting thing. The one you use to strip'em on the TARDIS." She yelled back.

He did as he was told, and pointed it at the remaining droids. Their hands sparked, just as it had in the carriage, and it confused them enough that he saw his chance for escape.

"Gonna start repairing themselves soon," The Doctor said, taking Rose's hand in his. "We need to shift, now."

Jack didn't need to be told twice, and the three ran back out the front doors. Once on the street, with the first sun rising in the North, the Doctor led them toward the stable where they'd rented the horse and carriage the day before.

"Where we going?" Jack asked, only slightly breathless from the run.

"Marron's." The Doctor said firmly. "Gotta be something, anything, that he and the Seurs have a bit'o common ground on that maybe mighta had a few protesters. Maybe something to do with the ballet since he is a patron."

"What about Clara-Marie? Hans?" Rose asked, her stamina a bit better than Jack's.

"Can't do anything to help the love birds 'til we know who to look for. Go back for 'em now and there'll just be more droids, and we can't take 'em all out with an umbrella stand and a sonic setting." He came up to the stable, smiled at the stable master.

"Oh no, sonny boy." The old man protested as he got to his unsteady feet. He shook his head, waving for them to back away. "Rented my carriage out to you yesterday and now it needs fixin'. Never did find where my driver went."

"Tell ya what," The Doctor said, "Pay ya double what we did yesterday and we'll only ask a couple horses of ya."

The stable master narrowed his gaze. "Triple." He said.

"Done." The Doctor said, reaching in his pocket and handing the man a credit stick. Likely way more than triple, since they were scanned, but he didn't pause to find out. He grabbed the reins of two saddled horses, a white and a brown, and brought them around to Jack and Rose. He then hopped up on the white horse, reaching down and offering Rose a hand.

"Not gonna fall off it, am I?" She chewed her lip nervously.

"Ride up front, won't let you fall." He promised.

"That's not the proper nor appropriate way to ride." The stable master lectured, glaring them down as Rose took the Doctor's hand to help get her up in the saddle.

"Done a lot worse things than this, mate." She said as she rest her hands on the Doctor's knees as he boxed her in with his arms. "Compared to some, it's right proper."

"What sorta things have you done?" The Doctor asked, giving her a teasing grin as he craned to look at her.

"None of your business, that's what." She replied back cheekily. She then smacked his knee. "Now come on, time to ride off like a hero, ain't it?"

"Hero am?" He asked, glancing to see Jack was on his horse, ready to ride.

"Got the white horse." She smiled, and he noted the tip of her tongue peeking just where he could see it when he turned back to her.

"Got the girl, too." He said with a flick of the reins.

"Not yet, ya don't." She said just before yelping and gripping his thighs with an iron grip as they galloped off.

~DWDWDW~

"By the suns and moons, what happened to you?" Graham Holly greeted them upon opening the door to Marron mansion. He stepped aside a beat later, allowing the trio to enter.

The mirror in the hall provided Rose with the first look she'd had of herself since leaving the TARDIS the day before. Dark circles were starting to form under her eyes, her hair an utter mess despite having combed and pinned it back before they left for the theater. Her dress, at least the top, looked like it'd been worn for at least a day already, and there was a couple of minor cuts made from stray cogs that grazed her after she destroyed a few of the droids. Her cheeks were red, likely a touch wind burnt from the fast pace the horse took in the cool weather, and reality was she wasn't even the worst looking of the three.

Jack didn't have a second set of clothes, and had managed to hide the tear in his waist coat and shirt by closing his jacket. At some point he'd lost the buttons that kept it shut, and had a few streaks of grime on his cheeks from their earlier fight. He'd also lost his top hat on the ride over, leaving his normally perfectly coiffed hair a mess.

Of course, the Doctor looked relatively unharmed except the gash in his arm and the tear in his jacket and jumper. She studied his face, noting he seemed completely unaffected by the elements or fatigue, the git.

"Got into a bit of a scrape with the fellas that took Clara-Marie. Charles around? Need to speak to him." The Doctor cut to the chase, putting his hands in his pockets and rocking once on his heels as if this had been nothing more than a social call.

Mister Holly shook his head. "I'm afraid Mister Marron was staying in town last night, wanting to ensure he had funds ready should there be a ransom request. He is due back in the next hour if you'd all care to stay, get tidied up." He looked over her and Jack. "Perhaps I can find you a change of clothing."

"And something to clean the wound?" Rose said, gesturing to the Doctor's arm. While Mister Holly nodded vigorously, the Doctor merely looked it over like it was a nuisance.

"Up stairs to the left. There are a couple of open guest rooms. I shall fetch a maid to help you, my dear, and if you gentlemen would follow me."

"Mind if a have a quick glance around Charles' office a mo? Won't be long, won't touch nothing, just want a gander at the photos on his wall." The Doctor asked, appearing all the world completely innocent in his request. Poor Mister Holly, the sap, seemed to think this fine and assented as much with a tilt of his head and a nod. He then turned to she and Jack, gesturing for them to go up stairs.

Rose shot a pointed look at the Doctor, who merely raised a brow before turning and heading down the corridor they went down the other day. As he disappeared, she went up stairs. She and Jack split off into separate rooms, and it was seconds after that a pair of maids came in behind her and closed the door. One carried a basin of what looked like warm water, the other came right over to Rose and guided her to a changing screen. She got the hint, shedding her heavy green dress to stand in her 42nd century undergarments and 38th century corset-type-thing. When the maid that lead her there came back with another green dress she didn't bat an eye at Rose's mixed and mismatched undergarments.

While still pretty, Rose instantly missed the weight of the gown she'd worn before. This dress didn't have quite the same fullness to the skirt, though it was at least long enough to hide her unorthodox shoes. The empire waist and squared neckline was flattering, but it didn't look quite as pretty as the off the shoulder style her other dress had. The little cap sleeves were a bit adorable though.

She stepped out from around the screen and was brought wordlessly over to a vanity where one maid went to work on unpinning and brushing out her hair while the other took a soft flannel and proceeded to wipe down her face. Within minutes, her hair was back up off her neck, braided and wrapped in a bun, and her face was clean of the fight she had earlier. Thanking the maids who gathered up her old dress, she turned and left the room.

Mister Holly stopped and smiled at her just as he was coming up the stairs carrying another small basin with a couple flannels draped over the edge.

"Ah, Miss Tyler, finished already. Lia and Beatrice are always quick hands. I've set the Doctor up in the spare study to wait for Mister Marron's return. I was just bringing this down there for him."

"Thank you, Mister Holly," Rose said with a smile, following the older butler down the hall. She entered right behind him, noting the Doctor sitting at a desk with his jacket sprawled over the surface. He was hunched over it with the sonic held delicately over the tear. He paid no mind to Mister Holly as the basin was placed on the desk beside him, and didn't even acknowledge the man as he left. Rose offered the butler an apologetic smile before taking one of the flannels from the side of the basin and wetting it. She then moved to kneel beside where the Doctor was sitting, holding his wrist with her fingers and using her free hand to push up his ruined jumper sleeve. He glanced at her, eyes looking her over before falling on the flannel and looking away.

"Don't need to fuss over me." He said as the sonic started to hum.

"Gonna anyway." She said, gently dabbing at the knife wound, cleaning it up.

"Sonic can take care of that, too, once I'm done here." He said without looking away from his task. She glanced over, watching the leather meld back together slowly.

"Thought you'd say something about your superior biology." She said, rinsing the cloth. The water tinted a slightly different shade of red than normal, but nothing the casual observer wouldn't have taken too much notice of. Wringing out the cloth, she returned to her task.

"I do have superior biology, and this will heal quickly, but the sonic coulda cleaned it up. As it stands, gonna have to use it to boil that water once your done your mothering."

She glared at him, but he didn't look at her. "Not mothering you." She grumbled. "Takin' care of you. 'Nd why do you have to boil the water?"

"Time Lord DNA." He replied.

She merely stared at him. "Time Lord DNA?"

"One little bit could change the whole of the human race." He turned toward her. "And here you are sponging it up."

She grinned, "You shed skin and hair."

"No I don't." He said immediately.

"My pillow says otherwise." She teased. "And you shave. Not to mention all the times you take a drink using other people's China. You've also been smacked around to the point of bleeding a few times across the Universe."

"Okay, Rose." He said.

"Really, you just don't want me taking care of you. 'Fraid it might hurt your male pride." She teased, tongue between her teeth.

A corner of his mouth pulled up as he looked down at her. "Ya quite done?"

"Teasing you? Never." She said with a shake of her head. She set the flannel in the basin, finished cleaning up his wound.

The Doctor pulled down the sleeve of his red jumper, pointed the sonic at it, and repaired the tear in the sleeve. He then pulled his jacket back on, and before he could do it himself, she reached up and adjusted his collar.

"What did ya find in your snooping?" She asked.

"Nothing much." He said, trying to be casual and failing terribly. "Remember those pictures I mentioned yesterday? Ones with Han's sisters in the background? They were in the theater."

"Oh?" She asked.

"And Marron was with a pair of gentlemen who looked like they might be well to do. Worth asking the patron about it when he gets in." He smirked. "Ya gonna fuss on me all day, or you still want me to save the girl and the pretty boy?"

"Thought _we_ were doing the saving?" She corrected.

He took her wrists lightly in his grip, getting her full attention. He studied her intently. "Not mad at me for not telling you about the Game Station at all, are you?"

She shrugged. "Wanna be. Hate when you try and protect me by puttin' me in this, this, I dunno, bubble I guess. Been traveling with you for a while now, 'nd you're not always around to get me out of a pinch. Prove to you I can take care of myself, handle anything, and still …."

"I'm sorry," He said sincerely, holding her eye. "Try my best not to do that from now on. But you're human, Rose. Fragile by nature. Just wanna make sure you're safe."

"Safety's out the window traveling with you, innit?" She teased, and immediately regretted it when deep remorse started changing the color of his eyes. She licked her lips, struggling for something to focus on to pull the Doctor out of the torrent he was throwing himself in. "How … how did you get the vortex out of me, anyway?"

"What?" He tensed, eyes meeting hers again in an instant. She wasn't sure what to do at this point. There were no warning signs the Doctor was about to flee, but he didn't look too keen on the topic.

"You said that you took the vortex out of me. Don't know exactly how it got into me so I wondered, well, how did you take it out?"

He swallowed, adam's apple bobbing, face blank with a touch surliness as he held her eye. She waited nervously for an answer, heart rate picking up with every second that passed in which the Doctor didn't speak or move. She thought to say something, but it was like seeing animals out in the wild: make a sound, move too quick, and they bolt. Her fingers flinched, nervously wrapping themselves more firmly around the soft, leather lapels of his jacket.

And he bolted.

Just not in the direction she was expecting.

She was right, his lips were soft and cool. Bit thinner than she had been used to with Mickey, but much more sure of their movements. The kiss was brief, lasting only long enough for her to reciprocate with a sharp intake of breath and a skim of her lips and he pulled back.

The Doctor looked petrified.

She was fairly certain she still looked surprised but hardly afraid.

Neither said anything.

A gentle tap on the door frame and a light clearing of the throat didn't even break their gaze. "Doctor, Mister Marron has returned and will wait for you down in his office."

"Thank you, Holly." The Doctor replied with his normal, unwavering tone that just hinted politeness.

Neither moved.

"That," She stammered, making the mistake of licking her lips and feeling the lingering coolness of his against her tongue. She shuddered, swallowed, tried to regain some composure as he looked unfairly held together. "That really how you took the vortex out of me, or were you acting on some kind of, I dunno, impulse or something?"

"Both." He said, much quieter than when he spoke to Mister Holly, but still with a poker face and even speech. "We should go, time's a wasting." He let go of her wrists slowly, stepping away from her carefully. She uncurled her fingers, smoothing down creases in the lapels of his jacket before she dropped her hands to her side and gave him a single nod.

He stayed where he was, watching her. She wrung her fingers before reaching out and offering her hand.

Every muscle in her body eased as the barest of smiles relaxed his features. Entwining their fingers as they'd always done, the Doctor lead Rose out of the study. "You seen Jack?" He asked as they past the guest rooms.

Rose looked to where the Captain had been placed, seeing the door still closed.

"Nope. Got an idea what he's up to, though."

The Doctor paused, considered, shook his head with a sigh, but said nothing on the topic. And if Rose had to guess, it was because he could more clearly hear what was going on behind that closed door than the faint creak of a bed that she had.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, or following. Always appreciated.

 **BenAddict Holmes, Sommerlee (** He made up for it **), annabethfan15, EmmaKathy, ImaSupernaturalCSI (** I have shamelessly read all 9's books **), beth51276 (** I agree with entirely **), and Loca8892.** Thank you for leaving word, it always brightens my day.

Nearly done on my end. I won't be posting right up until Christmas because I always liked reading Christmas(ish) stories ahead of the holiday. So still random and frequent.

Until next time.


	7. Family Mechanics

"Allow me to understand," Marron said, looking uncertainly at the Doctor. "Not only have these … these _psychopaths_ have my daughter, but they have that innocent half-boy too?"

"Seems that way," The Doctor replied, looking over the photos and certificates on the wall like he had the first time he was in Charles Marron's office. He stood, hands held behind his back, gazing at them with his chin lifted, and Rose stood in the corner to watch him work. She would be one of so few, if not the only one, who knew by the way he scanned the walls he was looking for a clue in the pictures. "We followed a lead. Deadly lead, turns out, but one nonetheless. Got the information I told you about, but now I need to know what you and the Seurs might have for common ground. Aside from the fact that your children are dance partners."

Mister Marron looked down at his desk, brow knitted together. "The Seurs are one of the most wealthy families in Noel, as I've said. They have great influence over everything, investments in nearly every aspect of the city."

"Everything?" Rose asked, getting the attention of the two men in the room. "The ballet too? Mister Holly said you were a patron, patrons usually have says and that sorta thing, yeah?" She shifted her gaze between Mister Marron and the Doctor, hoping she didn't sound like an idiot. The Time Lord's eyes lit up.

"Yes," Marron said with a nod, a bit of confusion coloring his features. "I am a patron, as is Alyssa Seurs, the matron of the household, Hans' mother. Well, whatever you want to call her."

"You get along with her, don't you?" The Doctor said with a knowing smile in Marron's direction. The mayor's eyes widened, his cheeks flushed a little. "Fancy her a bit, though that's dangerous when you consider her husband's likely a brute. Met her through Hans, I'd wager. Your children'd want nothing more than for their parents to get along so that maybe things could be more between 'em. Likely why both of 'em wanted to run away."

"They wanted to what?" Marron's eyes bulged, and face paling. Rose would have giggled if it hadn't been for the seriousness of the situation.

"Oh yeah, heard it from the lips of the boy himself. But don't be surprised, most don't say when they're gonna run away from home. I didn't." The Doctor said, folding his arms. He turned to Rose. "Didn't tell anyone when you ran away with me, either, did ya?"

"Mickey saw me do it, though. And to be fair, we did intend to only be gone a day." She teased a little. She loved the grin he gave her in return, open and warm, and filled with a deep affection that instantly made her recall the kiss upstairs.

"Point was, we just ran off together. They intended to do the same, dance more than just the Nutcracker for the rest of their lives, likely wanted to get out from under the feud. Even if it never became anything romantic like Hans wants, like it seems like your daughter wanted, they just wanted the freedom."

A knock sounded on the frame, and Mister Holly appeared in the doorway looking entirely too flustered. "Sir, I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, but …."

"Charles," An elegant sounding woman's voice called into the room, and a moment later a beautiful woman in her forties swept in and went right for Mister Marron.

He stood, extending his hand. "My dear Alyssa, what in the world?" He turned his attention to the doorway, straightening up to his full, albeit short, height. "Alistair."

"Now do you believe we didn't take your damned daughter?" A tall, sinister looking man stormed the room, slapping a piece of paper on the desk for Marron to see. His voice boomed, sounding nearly as imposing as the Doctor's when he got riled up. "He may not be my favorite, Charles, but he's still my boy, and who ever took him will certainly wish they didn't. Just gotta find the sons of bitches who did."

"Perhaps it was still your lot," Mister Marron did his level best to match the intimidation factor of his guest. Rose bit back a smile when she considered how he came up short. "Working together to help your _boy_ run away with my Clara-Marie."

"My other boys may not have been engineered with a lot of brain power, but they would know better than to aid Hans with such a foolish endeavor without my knowledge. And what's more, I'm sure they wouldn't dare send me a ransom for him." He growled, thrusting his hand toward the paper he'd slapped on Mister Marron's desk.

"And you would know, since you engineered them. I'm the Doctor, by the way." He grinned, offered his hand to Alistair Seurs who did not take it. The Doctor merely shrugged before recrossing his arms and looking up at the man that towered over him. "Just chatting with Charles here, and my clever Rose over there realized you lot both have a hand in the ballet." He looked to Alyssa. "What sorta control do the patrons have?"

Alyssa looked between her husband and Marron, before shaking her head. "A percentage, I suppose. We have a vote. Majority holds."

"Anything need voting on lately?"

"The retirement of the Nutcracker ballet." Charles said with dawning realization.

"Doesn't sound so drastic." Rose said, once more pulling everyone's attention. "Well, I mean, 's just a dance, yeah? 'S beautiful, and a tradition, but how's that such a big deal? People are sitting in bars, making plans, sending robots out to kill people. What's the ballet got to do with it?"

"Retiring the show would cost the village millions of credits a year." Marron confessed. "More than tradition, it's one of the main attractions. People come here specifically to watch our production of it. It wouldn't just take away the livelihood of our children, it would take away that of the whole village."

"You have Charles Dickens in the evenings!" The Doctor protested. " _A Christmas Carol_ , classic that."

"Hardly enchanting, and dreadfully dull." Alyssa replied without hesitation, and the Doctor scowled.

"And there's nothing else? Nothing else that draws travelers to your quaint little corner?" Rose asked, finding them either too snooty or increasingly pompous.

"Of course there is," Marron said indignantly. "But we are a village that celebrates family tradition, and that has become a staple. A production for the holidays in which the whole family can watch. _Dickens_ can be utterly terrifying to the young."

"Pretty sure your ballet was quite terrifying the other day." Rose noted as the Doctor grumbled on the other side of the room.

After he was done his quiet complaining he shifted to stand where he could see the Seurs and Marron. "Fine, Dickens isn't for the family, but the Nutcracker's apparently getting old. Might be retiring it, but no one's dumb enough to get rid of their money maker without intending to replace it. So aside from voting for what ya wanted to keep, what were you voting against bringing in?"

"The managers of the theater, Misters James and Sweeting, they wanted to do something different." Mister Marron sighed. "Something original. Hire choreographers and the like from off planet to create something …."

"Gawdy." Alyssa filled in.

"Maybe we should pay them a visit." The Doctor said, looking to Rose. "Was in the theater our clockwork friends found us in the wee hours."

"Maybe. Think we can find them somewhere else, though? Somewhere, I dunno, less likely to have hidden droids?"

"They have a habit of meeting for tea and scones in the cafe." Alistair scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "Twice a day, for that matter. Probably be able to catch them soon."

"Right, we'll head back to town then." The Doctor said, gesturing for Rose to head out.

"Just make sure when you do find them you hint quite strongly that if they are behind this, they are playing with fire." Alistair said with a sneer. "And if one hair on either of the children is harmed, they will regret it."

The Doctor simply nodded, waited for Rose to pass through the door first. He shut it behind him. "Always found that an odd phrase, a hair harmed. Hair has no nerve endings, just dead skin cells."

"Think it's really them? The managers?" Rose asked.

The Doctor shrugged, looking to the end of the hall. He held his arms instead of crossing them, and Rose sensed he was about to lie to her. "Dunno, could be. Still, doesn't hurt to ask'em a few questions."

"Doctor." She grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at her. "What aren't you saying?"

He held her eye a long pause, glanced back the way they came, making Rose do the same. The door was still closed, making the corridor look darker.

She sensed the Doctor leaning toward her. "Gotta quick look at that ransom note." He said quietly next to her ear. "Writing looked a bit feminine."

Well she supposed that was a little odd, especially since they were looking for men this whole time. She glanced up, met the Doctor's eye, and he gave subtle nod. He was on to something, or at least thought he was, and all she wanted to do in that moment was crawl into his brilliant mind and see how he was piecing it all together.

Footsteps came rapidly down the steps, and Jack turned the corner wearing fresh clothes and a satisfied grin. "I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm really not."

"Yeah, well, while you were upstairs cavorting, Rose and I put a little bit more of this puzzle together." The Doctor gestured to the door. "We're heading back to town."

"Sounds good to me." He said with a nod, turning and heading for the front door.

Mister Holly was there waiting for them, handing Jack a new top hat and offering a cloak to Rose.

"Not sure how you've been going around without one." He said as he helped Rose into the lightweight, wool garment.

"Hmm," She hummed. "Never really noticed, I suppose. Mighta been a bit brisk on the ride over, but I wasn't really paying attention to the weather. Just tried to stay on the horse." She grinned, taking Mister Holly's hand, squeezing it tight. "Hopefully if we see you again it's when we bring Clara-Marie home."

"I hope for the same, miss Tyler." He smiled gently, bowing over her hand before letting it go.

She stepped outside, moved slowly down the stairs toward the horses, the Doctor, and Jack.

"All done your chit chat, then?" The Doctor asked, climbing up on the saddle. "Still wanna ride up front, or you feeling brave enough to ride in back?"

"Front's best." She said, taking his offered hand and climbing up in the front. She leaned back against him a touch more than she had on the way there. As she was about to place her hands on his knees, the Doctor took them, curled her fingers around the reins. Panic flooded her system, and he laughed in her hair.

"Right behind ya." He said, hand curling around her waist. "I'll kick off, you just steer. Not much different than driving a car."

"Failed my driving test you know."

"So did I." He retorted.

"Shoulda known."

"Oi!" He chuckled as she did. "Enough outta you. Now, just hold on to the reins, pull left or right to steer him to follow Jack's horse, and if ya seem be getting off course, I'll help ya out, Okay?" Rose nodded. "Alright. Jack," he called over, getting the Captain's attention. "Let's go."

Jack nodded, and kicked off, and Rose held her breath and white knuckled the reins as the Doctor nudged the horse to follow. She yelped, but it soon turned to a laugh as she found herself guiding the horse with more ease than she had expected.

Didn't hurt the experience to have the Doctor's arm wrapped snuggly around her either.

~DWDWDW~

If Jack didn't know any better, he'd almost think the Doctor got laid. And what's more, he'd have guessed it was with one Rose Tyler. Just watching them on the horse from the moment they saddled up at the mansion until they returned the animals to the stables spelled out that _something_ had happened. He'd lost count of how many times he'd caught the Doctor looking forlorn and full of longing toward their friend in the past, but the glimpses he caught since leaving the mansion were just longing. They had always teased and flirted, but this seemed more free.

But the moment they dismounted, horses returned to the stables for the time being, they were all business.

"Not entirely sure what we're gonna find." The Doctor said as he prowled toward the town square. All power, intentions clear in the set of his shoulders, and he still wasn't even his most determined. That had been when he got Rose back from the Daleks, when he stood tall and unflinching against the Slitheen, when he commanded the nurses and patients of the mental hospital on the stupid planet and their lack of imagination. It was, frankly, one of the Doctor's more attractive states, aside from truly happy. And working on the console of the TARDIS. Jacketless. Practically naked.

Jack shook himself out of his mental wanderings. The scent of the young man that brought him his clothes still clung to his skin, and they were in the middle of trying to save a pair of kids. He gave his head another minute shake, took a breath, and focused on the important stuff.

"Don't even know for sure if it's the managers we're looking for, so no going at them guns blazin'." The Doctor warned them. "Let's try and make this casual, see if we can figure it out without being too direct. If it's them, I don't want'em rushing to make good on their threats."

He lead them toward the quaint little cafe, taking Rose's hand on reflex as he opened the door. He at least glanced back to make sure Jack was behind him before he let go of the handle.

"Hello," The Time Lord greeted a waitress. "Like a table for three, if I could. Me and the Missus thought it be nice to take her brother out to brunch."

The waitress, who was lovely, smiled at Jack before nodding slightly. She grabbed three single paneled menus and lead them upstairs to a little corner table by a window over looking the square.

"One of the best seats in the house," She gushed. "Might encourage your brother to extend his trip." She added to Rose, handed out the menus, and left.

"She's the missus this time?" Jack taunted as he looked over the limited, yet delicious sounding selection.

"Least you're not the help." Rose shot back smoothly. "Know we're not really here for the dining, but the quiche sounds gorgeous. Care to share it with me?" She asked the Doctor.

He wrinkled his nose. "Not one for mushrooms, me. Gonna have to pass."

Jack stared at them. So sharing food wasn't abnormal, he supposed, and they had been around one another for far longer than he'd been part of the team. But that seemed very … domestic.

Loud, boisterous laughter very damn near song got louder as two men came and joined them in the upstairs seating area. One was a bit on the round side, the other rail-thin, and both dressed far too well for the time of day and venue.

"Jack?" Rose got his attention and looked at him expectedly.

Right, quiche.

"Sure thing, Rosie." He replied, setting down the menu and turning his attention back on the men.

Theater men, the pair of them. In a village where wool coats were the norm, those two each had a cape lined with a different color each. Where cravats were the style, these two had bow ties. And their mustaches? Jack had to wonder how much product was used to get them curled and sculpted in such whimsical way.

A moment later their waitress came back, took their orders for tea and quiche, and then moved on to the two men. Tea and scones, a usual it sounded like, and something that made the Doctor's lips quirk into a smirk.

"I'm going to go ahead and guess that you two already knew who they were?" Jack asked.

"Marron's got pictures with them in his office," The Doctor replied. "Kinda hard to miss'em in a crowd when ya know who you're looking for."

"I'll say," Jack commented, causing Rose to snicker.

The three sat quietly, listening in as best they could to the conversation two tables away, sipping tea and nibbling quiche when it had been brought up. The men they were eavesdropping on didn't even seem to know they were there, gossiping blatantly about seemingly anyone and everyone, though none of it was useful. Well, maybe not entirely. Was always good to know the baker was a little loose, should they stick around once the girl was found and the droids were stopped.

"We'll need to find new dancers." The skinny one said solemnly after a pause in their conversation. "I doubt the mayor or that mafia they call a family will stop pointing their fingers at each other fast enough to save their children."

"Shame, too, really." The round one said, sipping his tea. "Both had such potential."

The skinny one sipped his tea with an over-emphasized look of contemplation. "Maybe now they'll allow us to change up the ballet?" He pondered, looking back to his partner with a nonchalant shrug. "Patrons won't have children they'll be thinking of in the show any longer, might not care quite so much if we want to do something similar to the Boisflame Ballet Company. Spice things up, as it were."

"You know it really makes you two look guilty talking the way you are." The Doctor's deep voice startled Jack enough he physically reacted. He whipped his head back to the Doctor who held his dainty little teacup half way to his mouth, looking more innocent than the annoyed his voice implied.

The two managers were sitting there jaw dropped, eyes wide, and pale.

"Here we are, tryin' to have a nice family meal, and there's you lot giving me reason to believe maybe you did take those kids for your gain." The Doctor added, taking a sip of his tea before setting it down on the little saucer. "Don't want to think it's you, the pair of you seem fine, hardly homicidal. Or stupid, for that matter, considerin' a droid recognized the good Captain here, so whoever's controlling them should be able to do the same. Not to mention that warm greeting we received early this morning."

"What?" Round one responded, jaw moving continually as he looked between his equally baffled skinny partner and the Doctor. "Sir, I beg your pardon, but what are you …?"

"You can't possibly think … we want Hans and Clara-Marie to stay with us."

"Any show we'd put on would be better with both."

"Especially if it's a romance."

The two went back and forth, shrinking back continually as if the Doctor was on his feet and stalking toward them.

Instead the Time Lord was sitting calmly, picking up his fork and taking a small piece of the tail end of Rose's slice of quiche. He made a face, mumbled something about mushrooms, and quickly drained his cup. He set it down, turned to the managers unperturbed, and crossed his arms.

"Well it's got to somehow connect back to the pair of you," He insisted. "Your theater, your dancers, your plans the only ones being hindered by Marron and Seurs. And here you are, chin wagging in a public place 'bout how much easier it'd all be if the two of them simply disappeared."

"We swear," Tall one begged, hands out in front of him. "Mister James and I are terribly distraught over the loss of those lovely children."

"Yeah, you seem it." Jack rolled his eyes.

"We are," Short one insisted. "But we can't help but see the advantage it holds for us."

"Even if it does come as a loss to the family." Tall one added.

"Sorry, family?" Rose said, shaking her head a little and narrowing her gaze. Even the Doctor seemed perplexed by this development.

"Yes," Short one said. "Don't get me wrong, Hans is a lovely dancer."

"Truly," Tall one added.

"But he _is_ engineered, an advantage we wouldn't want to cater to."

"Honestly."

"Except we hardly wanted to end up in the proverbial dog house."

"Indeed."

"Dog house?" Jack asked.

"Why yes," Tall one said. For as terrified as he seemed, acting as if his back was against a wall, he still paused to sip his tea like a gentleman. "Our wives would certainly be cross with us if they were to find out we didn't cast their darling younger brother because of a slight prejudice."

"Wives." The Doctor's eyes widened with sudden understanding, and he whipped his head around to look at Rose. "Told you, saw Hans' sisters in background of a business like photo on Marron's wall. Except it wasn't business at all, it was a photo with those lug nuts as their patron. And the sisters weren't in the background waiting for their boss, they were in the background waiting for their husbands."

"Husbands who wanted to change one of the main attractions of Noel." Rose said quickly.

"Changing how the money shifted, how the village may be run if it all goes well."

"But the two figures in the bar were men." Jack said. "The ones speaking about taking charge of the village were men."

"Says who?" The Doctor asked. "We only ever heard the words figures, people, never a gender."

"But I saw them," Jack reminded him. "And I'd like to think I'm very well acquainted with both male and female forms."

"Pardon us," Short one said.

"Hate to interrupt your intriguing deduction." Tall one added.

"But before you get off track on your train of thought, might we say …."

"Our wives are far from feminine."

"And are often easily mistaken for men."

"How else do you think we can tolerate being married to them?"

"Indeed."

Even Jack could think of nothing to say to that revelation. Not that he was surprised, he supposed, when it came to the pair a few tables over. But at the same time it was odd that they had wives at all given the century they were in. He knew from chattering with Rose that many men still had a 'beard' in her times to hide their sexuality, but now? Well, he supposed they were an eccentric pair.

"Your wives wouldn't have a hand in anything around the theater, would they?" The Doctor asked.

Tall one beamed. "Diane is exceptional at props."

"As is Louanne." Short one added in.

The Doctor stood. "Gentlemen, lovely chatting with you. Hope you don't mind, but by the end of the day the pair of you might want to come right out and admit your feelings for each other because neither of ya will be seeing your wives for a long time."

The pair laughed, loud and hearty.

"We have no feelings for one another."

"Don't even stir the slightest bit of interest."

"But I will say, your gentleman friend does."

"Indeed."

Jack grinned. "Maybe another time."

He didn't really mean that.

Even he had limits as to whom he'd shag, and those two were pretty low on the list of desired partners.

"Right, well, we should head back to the theater before you change your mind." The Doctor said, gesturing to the stairs with his head.

Jack glanced at Rose, seeing she was already steeling her self for what would come next.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you to all the readers, favoriters, followers and reviewers!

 **Hediru, Sommerlee, Leia1979, annabethfan15, and Tiakisu.** Thank you for leaving word. Always, always a pleasure, especially as it means seeing so many people who love Nine, too.

That said: If there is enough interest, or seems that there could be potential, I may very well write a more full length story loosely following S2 with Nine, Rose, and Jack. But that won't be for a bit as I need to finish up the _Run with You_ series first.

Next post is only a few days away. Until then.


	8. Overature

He looked up at the theater for just a moment, then he pulled out his sonic and kept going. It wasn't much of a defense, but it was all the Doctor had. He didn't have to worry about Jack, and that made him equally grateful and guilty. Rose could be his only concern, and since he already knew telling her to stay out would be out of the question he'd take what ever hope he could get.

Walking up the stairs, he noted the lobby still dark, and there were still no signs of activity on the other side of the doors.

"Place should be buzzing, or at least humming by now." He noted out loud. "A show would have had to start around two," He checked his watch. "At least the two o'clock equivalent on this planet, and that's only a couple hours away. Should have the box office open, should see stage hands and the like mulling about in there. There's nothin'."

"Leads are gone." Rose reminded him. "Whole village probably knows. Likely no one bothered turning up."

"They had to have had understudies." Jack said as the Doctor pushed open the door, leading them inside.

"Yeah, but's not like they just got the flu or something." Rose said, instinctively lowering her voice, good girl that she was.

They moved along, slow, steady, being very cautious. He hoped they were as on alert as he was as they headed into the main amphitheater. His hand twitched, wanting to seek out Rose's, knowing it wouldn't be wise should they really need to run. The aisles leading to the stage were ample, but there's no way they'd be able to move quickly joined as a hand.

And when did it became so imperative that they be joined so often? When did the need to never let her go become so seeded that it was manifesting itself into a physical need? The Doctor knew that a kiss would lead to wanting more, and a second kiss did absolutely nothing to help with the problem even if it was short. He'd have never have expected it to have imprinted Rose on his soul so indelibly.

It was not the time to contemplate matters of the hearts.

He moved to the right, Jack and Rose to the left, and the three ascended the stairs at the stage.

"We heading into the back?" Jack asked.

"See either of them laying around here? Sitting in the seats waiting for the show? Yes, Captain, we're heading in the back." He did his level best not to roll his eyes, but it wasn't good enough.

He edged toward the back curtain, unsettled by the quantity of heavy props that they'd have to weave their way around. He heard the scrap of metal on metal, and whirled toward it with sonic drawn. Rose had pulled a sword out from one of the prop holders. She grinned, gave a little shrug, and carried on.

Jack followed her lead. "Think one of these will actually do damage?" He asked.

"No clue. Best hope we don't find out." The Doctor replied.

Something moved.

Nothing that sounded like the motions of a droid, but something falling in the distance. He doubted his human companions heard it, but the following chain reaction couldn't be missed. A thunk, the sound of something rolling above their heads, moving down various slops with only brief pauses in between. The Doctor scowled, nostrils flaring as he tried and failed to spot the heavy sounding object that was likely meant to distract them. It fell with a thud, one, two, three times until it landed on something with a click.

"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" began to surround them, partially drowning out the sound as he, Rose, and Jack managed to find their way in to the same small, barely cleared space. It was played slowly, the notes sounding as though they came from a toy piano. It was covering something up, causing him to want to grab both his companions and run as much as it let him know they were exactly where they needed to be.

"Doc, we got company." Jack warned, and the Doctor turned to see three tin-soldier droids coming toward them from behind the Captain and Rose.

He turned back to where he had a clear path before, but he could already see the bladed hands of the droids coming toward them. He backed up, feeling his back collide with those of his companions, and he raised his sonic already set to short out the droids when they got close enough to effect them all.

Something moved in the corner of his eye, and his lips twitched into a slight smirk.

"Willin' to kill your own brother? Not very lady like."

He relaxed a tiny bit as the droids seemed to stop as the music did. The double beats of his hearts were the only sound that filled his ears until the clink of a woman's shoe against the hardwood came at him from both where he spotted movement, as well as from his right.

Two women dressed in very slim fitting dresses and top hats stepped into the light. Both could have very easily been mistaken as very feminine men as neither even really had curves. And he was wrong about their noses, theirs made his look pretty fantastic.

"Well we weren't going to, really." The one on the left said, her voice low in an almost sultry way.

"But then Hans got nosy, snooping about where he shouldn't be." The one on the right said, her voice distinctly more feminine but nearly monotone. She wore purple to her sister's blue, almost as if they were twins who dressed identical except for color and one had a necklace.

"Sorta like you lot." Chimed in the blue belle.

"But he's family, so we wanted to give him a chance at survival." Purple one added.

"Unlike you." Blue took a couple steps forward, looking him over as he stared her down. "Although, you have potential. Handsome features, large hands, you would do well to carry on the Seurs line."

"Thanks, but not interested." The Doctor said with a fake grin.

"Could make you a deal, though." Purple advanced moving around and eyeing Rose with disdain. "Let you keep the pretty ones alive."

"No," Blue shook her head, waving it off. "Not worth it, they'd give no value. Him, he's good stock, a man Daddy wouldn't mind having around. But those two? Hardly worth the effort."

"We should just kill them now." Purple agreed with a sigh.

"What good would it do to kill us?" Rose blurted out, panic making her voice go high as the droids stepped closer. They only took that one step, but it was enough to make the Doctor look around them, trying to see their best means of escape. He spotted it, hand moving back slowly only to have his fingers brush the skirts of Rose's dress. She was gripping her prop sword with both hands, giving him no way to really grab her when the time to run came. Another idea came to him, he just needed to communicate it to Rose.

"Well, what good is it to keep you alive?" Blue asked.

"Especially since you've seen us."

"But we don't know what you want. Tell us, we'll help you get it." Rose encouraged.

"We want to be rich." Purple insisted.

"And powerful." Blue joined.

"And if our parents and that foolish little Mayor start making more decisions together."

"We may never be able to sculpt and mold this village using them and our husbands."

"Taking charge not taking over." The Doctor said, fingers moving slowly up to touch Rose's back while he kept his attention on the sisters. "It's what people overheard you saying: taking charge."

"What's the difference?" Jack asked in a harsh clip.

The Doctor smirked as he met Blue's eyes. "Old Earth saying, Jack: behind every great man is a great woman." He tapped Rose three times on the back, horizontally, and then swiped his finger along the slight trail. "Ballet gets canceled, village goes down hill. Marron said it was the main draw for visitors. Suddenly it looks like Marron has lost his touch, can't keep Noel going. Seurs is brute, no one would elect a brute, so who with influence would be left?"

"Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb?" Jack scoffed.

"They put on a new show, one that draws people in, village has money again."

"And them?" Rose asked, the panic in her voice having ebbed a bit.

"Really think Sweeting and James could run a village?" He asked her, tone dripping in sarcasm.

"They can barely run their theater." Blue said.

"We do most of the work." Purple interjected.

"Which is how we came to know what that tart and our brother were planning to do."

"And we knew Marron would do anything to make her happy _or_ keep her alive."

"Which turned out, could be one in the same."

"So he votes the way of change and she lives, making her happy as well as she gets to dance something new."

"Or she dies." Blue shrugged. "Which would make him so distraught he'd likely do whatever would be needed anyway."

"And as we said." Purple added, "Hans just got in the way."

"And where exactly were you keeping the young lovers all this time?" The Doctor asked, tilting his chin with an air of curiosity. He also ignored the way both Seurs women seemed to appreciate the movement.

"Where do you think?" Purple snickered.

"Clara-Marie's dressing room."

"Where no one would look."

"If she'd been kidnapped."

"Fantastic, saves some time." The Doctor said, splaying his hand between Rose's shoulder blades and gave a light pat.

He'd never been so pleased with how well he and Rose could communicate without words or a telepathic bond. Having deciphered his movements on her back, she swung her sword in the exact movement he wanted her to take just as he triggered the short out of the droids with his sonic. He grabbed her arm and ran.

"Where are we going?" She asked as they made escape the immediate backstage.

"Gonna find the dressing room, get Clara-Marie and Hans out, then after I get that sorted, figure out a way to stop the Seurs sisters from trying this again." He rambled as he guided her toward the corridor with the dressing rooms.

He stopped short as a pair of droids, much more human looking this time, came toward them with gun hands. Jack darted around them, swinging his sword down. He damaged the gun hands, much to the droids' confusion, but he also broke the sword. It was only then that the Doctor thought to see if Rose still had her weapon.

She didn't.

"What happened to yours?" He asked.

"Stuck in a droid." She admitted as they moved as quick as they could around the ones in front of them.

He and Jack managed to get by, but Rose's sharp intake of breath alerted him that something was wrong before he even turned to see. One droid managed to grab her by the arm, holding tight. He pointed the sonic as he noted the other one raising it's other hand toward her neck. Rose reached up, attempting to hold it back as he had done in the carriage the day before. But she was already so much weaker than he was, a fault of her human physiology, and she was attempting it one armed.

"Come on, come on." He growled as his sonic decided this would be the perfect time to have difficulty functioning.

"Doc, Rose?" He heard Jack's voice echo from down the hall as he hit the end of the sonic against the wall.

It whirred to life, the sparks causing Rose to yelp.

"Bloody hell," She cursed, grabbing her wrist below the faint bruise already forming on her arm. She didn't wait for him to look her over, to catch her hand or make sure she was alright. Rose charged down the hall with determination and a few muttered curses.

They found Jack as they turned the corner, standing in front of a door marked C.M.M.

"It's locked."

"Screwdriver's on the fritz." The Doctor said, taking a second, stepping back and then lunging at the door in a kick no less fierce than the one he gave the door in Cardiff.

On the other side, Hans was hovered over a terrified and whimpering ballerina who looked completely baffled when she finally looked up.

Hans smiled. "Somehow I did not doubt in the least you'd come for her."

"And what about yourself?" The Doctor asked as he moved over to them, checking out the bindings hold their wrists behind them. Twine, simple but effective, and could cause both a lot of pain if they tried to break free.

"Wasn't worried about me." Hans admitted as the Doctor fished around in his jacket for a pair of scissors he knew he had in there somewhere. "I didn't even intend to attempt heroism. I was here practicing when I thought I hear my sisters. I made the mistake in thinking I could just come along and say hello."

"What do they want? I don't understand why they're doing this to us." Clara-Marie asked, looking up at her rescuers.

Rose knelt down beside her, resting her hand on Clara-Marie's shoulder. The Doctor managed to glimpse her arm as he located the scissors. Her arm was bruised worse than he'd previously noticed, and there were little burns on her arm from the sparks. His jaw tightened, and he moved with deliberate movements to ensure he didn't accidentally take out the building rage on the innocent kids they were here to help.

"Not anything you did." Rose said gently. "Hans' sisters just sorta got it in their head they could have their way if they threatened to hurt you."

"And Daddy?" Clara-Marie asked as the Doctor moved to cut her ties first.

Rose smiled gently. "Worried terribly about you, of course."

"We'll get you back home." Jack said the words the Doctor couldn't force out as he moved along to Hans. The twine had already done damage to the ballerina's wrist from her inevitable struggling, and the ballerino's were looking fairly red.

"How do you plan to make it past those … those things?" Hans asked, mumbling a thank you to the Doctor before wrapping his arms around his dance partner. Clara-Marie's dark hair hid her face as she turned into his embrace, nuzzling into Hans' chest.

"Got an umbrella stand?" Rose asked cheekily, and her tongue touched grin eased The Doctor's tension a touch.

"Doesn't look it," He said, taking a cursory glance around the room while standing and pocketing the scissors. He noticed that someone, likely Jack, had propped a chair against the door under the knob since the lock was broken. Wouldn't do much, but it didn't hurt. The Doctor's eyes then fell on something in the corner, and he gave a tiny grin. "Know what we do have, though." He moved swiftly, plucking the fire extinguisher from it's place on the wall and showing it off with a manic grin.

"What's that going to do?" Jack asked, and the grin fell.

"Freeze the gears." The Doctor said, gesturing with it again. Why couldn't anyone seem to see how brilliant a plan this was? No sonic to short them out, no heavy objects for them to swing, this would be perfect. He looked them over, confusion and skepticism on three out of four faces.

Rose was smirking slyly.

"Always wanted to fire off one of those for fun." She said as she got up.

He tossed her the one in his hands, and she caught it with a slight wince he tried not to notice. "That's the spirit!" The Doctor proclaimed. "Jack, lead Clara-Marie and Hans through that side door. Less likely to run into a droid if you go through the interconnection of the rooms. Rose, follow me across the hall. Gonna need a defense in case our friends find us." She nodded, adjusting her hold on the extinguisher.

"And what are we doing, exactly?" Jack asked as Hans and Clara-Marie got to their feet, clinging to each other.

"Arming ourselves. Go through the rooms, don't stop until you each have one, then run for the nearest exit. Doubt the Suers sisters will leave the theater and risk our escape, so when you do get out run for the nearest officer and tell 'em. Shout in the streets what's going on, I don't care. Make sure they don't get to run off when we do."

"Louanne is likely the one that controls the droids." Hans said, looking him square in the eye. "Diane likely came up with the idea."

"Louanne is the one in the purple, is she?" The Doctor asked.

Hans nodded once. "Do what you have to to make sure she can't control them. If we escape, and they find out, I don't think they'll be above unleashing them on to the village."

The Doctor nodded, shifting a bit at the implication a young boy who was engineered to be peaceful was making. About his own sisters, no less.

"Alright, you three: move. Jack, keep 'em safe"

"Can do," he said with a nod, and he took the lead on heading into the adjacent dressing room, door closed behind them.

"Let me see your arm." The Doctor snapped to Rose, taking the injured limb in his hands with a delicate touch.

"'S fine." Rose said after a hiss.

"Burned and bruised, might even be fractured a bit."

Rose shook her head. "Can still move it. Don't hurt unless you …." She gestured at it with her head.

"Second we get back to the TARDIS," he started to warn.

She laughed. "Yes, Doctor." She teased, and he grinned over his shoulder at him before opening the door.

Droids lifted their arms, ready to shoot.

Rose, however, was quicker.

The frost fog covered the droids and froze them instantly.

"Ha!" She laughed in triumph.

"Celebrate later, let's get me armed and head back out to face the Psycho Sisters." He bolted across the hall, finding this door unlocked, and darted inside. There was another extinguisher in roughly the same location as the one had been in the other dressing room, and he plucked it up and darted back out to find Rose worrying her lip with her teeth. Her on extinguisher was raised and ready to fire, as she eyed the droids wearily.

"I can hear the gears." She said a little nervously. "'S like they're trying really hard to start up already."

"Would be. Let's shift."

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you to all the readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers.

 **Sommerlee, Stacy, TheKitchenMistress BennAddict Holmes, annabethfan15, and Insane-Bookworm-4ever** , thank you as always for leaving word.

Only a couple more chapters left. Well, a chapter and an epilogue. An S2 rewrite with these three is definitly looking more like a possibility, but won't be seen for quite a while.

Until next post.


	9. March

Jack popped his head out of the final dressing room, pleased to see there were no droids. He could hear the Doctor's deep voice down the hall, but the words he was saying was indistinguishable.

"We're good to head out," He told the couple behind him.

Hans was deliciously masculine, all things considered. He'd been wearing his leotards, which was distracting of course, but he at least had the decency of untucking his shirt to cover the assets. Of course, his shirt was also open a bit, and since he was genetically engineered he had the perfect smattering of dark hair on a broad chest.

Clara-Marie, lovely little pixie that she was, had changed from her costume to a simple blue dress. No way to hid her assets, and if it weren't for the precarious situation they'd all found themselves in, or the escape they were trying to make, Jack would have let it be known how interested he was. In both of them.

If this was being a hero, he could get used to it. He, the Doctor, and Rose had had some wonderful trips, and there was no lack of beautiful people on any of them, but this was the first time that he felt he might want to be properly rewarded for his efforts.

He really hoped they were alright, because as he and the other couple crept out into the corridor there wasn't a single droid to be seen.

That was partly good. But it also meant the two people he loved most in the Universe, two people that would die or change trying not to, were off facing the twisted sisters by themselves.

"There's an exit this way," Hans pointed out, and Jack listened. He nodded and lead them toward it. He had to, he didn't have a choice. The Doctor gave him an assignment and that was to get these two out of there. So what if he wasn't really a solider anymore, or ever in some ways? He'd do just about anything that double hearted alien asked of him. Maybe more now that there wasn't going to be any dire consequences on the table.

Jack's jaw tightened a little at the thought that maybe it should have been Rose leading them out. As the exit approached and there was not a droid to be seen, he was suddenly overridden with guilt that she was at risk and he wasn't. He paused, the couple passed him, and he decided.

"You guys go on ahead," Jack said, tilting his head toward the door. "I'm going to go back for my friends."

"But…." Hans started to say, but Jack shook his head.

"Can't, have to. Gotta make sure they're okay."

"But, Sir," Hans said, lifting a finger to point behind him. "Something tells me that even all three of these wouldn't put out that fire."

Jack's heart dropped into this stomach and he turned to see what Hans had. Flames licking the entrance of the corridor, smoke already starting to filter down toward them.

"Out," Jack said. "Let's go, move."

Hans led the way, grabbing Clara-Marie's hand and pulled her out into the crisp, midday air.

Villagers were scurrying about as the fire seemed to have spread quickly. Coming through the roof, Jack watched in horror. They would have gotten out, right? No way did they survive the shit storm of the Daleks only to end here.

He waited statue still for some sign of the Doctor and Rose.

~DWDWDW~

They moved slowly, side by side where ever possible. The Doctor focused on every little sound around him, determined he would not be caught off guard by a droid. He could faintly hear the rapid beat of Rose's heart, smell the adrenaline that began to pour off of her. He knew she was scared, but not nearly enough to hamper her determination fueled by bravery. His Rose, precious girl, could likely look the devil in the eye and not waver. If the devil were real, that is.

He caught the ticking coming from the left, and he reached a hand out to lightly touch Rose's. He was mindful of the bad bruising, the blisters of the burns from the sparks, but she still hissed a little at the contact.

She looked up at him inquisitively, and he nodded behind her.

She turned, waited, and at the first sight of the droid, she let a blast from the extinguisher go.

It stopped, its ticking hampered by the frozen gears.

"How are we actually going to stop them?" Rose asked quietly. "I know Hans said his sister, Louanne, was the one in control. But how's she doing it? I didn't see any, I dunno, remotes or anything in her hands."

"Cross that bridge when we get there." The Doctor replied, slowly moving along so Rose would follow.

"As long as Hans and Clara-Marie are out, I'll be okay with whatever we have to do."

That made him pause, turn her to face him. It made him uneasy how she didn't seem to realize the full meaning of what she'd said.

"Might have to do something drastic." He warned her.

Rose snorted. "Already did that recently, yeah?"

"Jackie …."

"Probably already thinks I'm dead." Rose said, averting her eyes to her feet. "She knew I was choosing you over … over a normal life when I went back for you. Knew you were likely dying and I was going to be there with you."

"Don't think that means you can just start throwing your life away." The Doctor warned her more harshly than he intended. The snap in his voice had her meet his eyes, though he could see the fight coming in them just as her mouth twisted to hide the scowl. "Didn't want you coming back for me then, certainly won't be afraid to send you away again if I have to."

"Said you wouldn't."

"Never said anything of the like."

"Thought you said we were partners?"

"Yeah, and what do ya think that means? Looking out for each other."

"Right, each other. Means I'm there for you, too." Rose stepped up, her small figure seeming quite imposing with all the fury she inherited from her mother dancing in those hazel eyes. "Not being self-sacrificing, just living my life as I see it."

"Oh, which is how, exactly?" The Doctor snapped back.

"Nothing without you in it." Rose said steadily. His hearts stopped a moment, and his respiratory bypass kicked in. It was pretty darn close to hearing words he wasn't sure he could handle coming hours after their second, brief kiss. His legs twitched and his feet longed to feel the pressure of a good run against their soles. She couldn't possibly be saying what she was, or mean it the way he would. For a second he saw fear flicker in her eyes, uncertainty chasing after it, but then they became blank. Steeled. Rose shut down. "We have a pair'o psychos to stop. Let's go."

"Rose." He reached out and grabbed her hand, but she didn't turn back to face him. Worst yet, he had no idea what to say. He stood, preventing her from moving, and he had no idea what should come next. There was the truth, but no way was he going to admit that.

She pulled her hand roughly away from his, and as he was about to protest he realized she was getting ready to fire off the extinguisher again.

So caught up in silly, base emotions all pertaining to a simple little human and he almost got her killed.

Refocusing, he heard the ticking coming up behind him, and he fired. He froze three, but six more were coming up behind. A couple had deep breaks in their shells from where either Rose or Jack hit them with the prop sword, and he knew that the droids would only be fully stopped by being shut down. Another blast from his extinguisher, and he heard Rose's firing off behind him.

"I'm out." She said, backing up against him. He reached around, pulled her in front of him, put his arms somewhat around her as he fired off the last of his extinguisher and only refreezing the droids in front of them. Tossing it aside, he pulled her closer, holding Rose to his chest.

"We're gonna have to run." He said, assessing the best possible way, but there were droids in every direction. A quick count totaled eighteen. Eighteen droids, some with their fake hands already dropped and revealing the weapons they were built with. At least the dancers would have gotten out.

"What should we do with them, Diane?" He heard Louanne say from somewhere beyond the droids in front of him.

"Same plan as before, I think." Diane replied from behind him. "Kill the girl and keep him for our own pleasure."

Rose snorted.

He looked down to see her roll her eyes.

"Good luck with that one, mates." Rose called out, gently pushing herself off his chest and out of his hold. His arms felt empty, but he was too confused (and admittedly a bit hurt) to do anything about it. It was the blitz after meeting Jack all over again. "Not even sure he's capable of that sorta thing."

His jaw dropped, a protest on the tip of his tongue. A glare from her silenced him.

"Maybe he just doesn't like his women so big mouthed and doe-eyed." Louanne countered with a snicker.

"Maybe he doesn't even like women. I mean, you've seen the bloke we were with, right?"

"Rose Tyler." He said with an uncomfortably high voice.

"They spend far too much time together, to be honest. Always 'tinkering', if you catch my drift." She said casually, peeking around the droids which had thawed but didn't move.

One kiss, on bloody kiss because Harkness was likely going to die anyway. And he'd already shown her that he was more interested in doing that with her. No, not more, only. Only interested in her.

"We're used to that." Diane said from behind him.

"You should meet our husbands."

"Oh, we have. Doctor took quite the shining to them, didn't ya?" She asked, slowly moving through the droids at a very cautious pace.

What in the bloody hell was she going … oh! Oh, she's moving toward Louanne. He can see the purple top hat just peeking out from behind one of the droids.

"Frustrating, innit?" Rose continued casually, chatting up the Seurs sisters like they weren't threatening their lives. "Being around a bloke who's all charm and swagger but when it comes down to it he just sorta falls … flat."

"Oi!" He said, cringing when he realized he was probably screwing up her plans somehow.

"Actually, we married the buffoons because we thought it would make Daddy happy."

"Maybe give us a bit more say in how we Seurs might overthrow Marron."

"But he never bothered with us."

"Not even when we got Hans in the theater and Mother on the Patron's list." Diane sighed.

He wished he could see Rose, but he didn't want to shift even the slightest in case it was perceived as some kind of threat.

"That is a _gorgeous_ necklace." He heard his girl say with near genuine appreciation. "Pendant's a little on the big side, but it's just lovely."

He really wished he could see what was happening. He heard the the startled gasp of Louanne, the sound of a chain breaking with a yelp, and then all the droids turned toward she and Rose.

"Louanne!" Diane yelled.

"Not me." She screamed out as the droids advanced. "Give that back to me you little harlot!" Louanne cried out in a mix of horror, anger, and desperation.

He finally spotted Rose backing up toward him, her hand clutched so tightly around a pendent her knuckles were turning white. The droids passed her, passed him, without paying them any mind (if they had one).

Diane rushed past him, and before he could move she grabbed Rose's hair and yanked back, causing her to scream out. Diane grabbed the chain and yanked, causing Rose to lurch with it as her grip held tight. Another tug by Diane snapped the chain.

"Doctor!" Rose called out, and before Diane could fully turn back to try and pry the pendant from Rose's hand, she tossed it over head back toward him.

He caught it, and the second it came in contact with his palm he felt his mind sort of sync up to it. The Droids suddenly stopped.

"Give me the pendant." Diane demanded, and he looked over to see she still had a hold of Rose's hair. She still had her head pulled back, her throat exposed, and with the droids stopped she was able to take one with a blade hand and manually move the limb to press right around Rose's pulse point. "Give it to me or I make this green dress of hers a bit more festive. Always need a little red to give it some balance."

"Let her go," He warned, feeling the thrum of the pendant a little stronger. He understood in that moment why all the droids went after Louanne: because Rose couldn't control it. Her mind, as brilliant as it was, could not fully understand how to connect to the pendant controls and tune itself to an individual droid. It would have to take months for a human brain to learn to be that attuned with a controller like this.

"Give me the pendant." Diane warned, her hand tightening around the droid arm she held.

"I said, let her go." He growled, looking down his nose at her with all the fury her threatening Rose was brewing in him.

Rose gasped out, eyes going wide. He smelled the metallic liquid before he saw the bead form around the tip of the blade that broke her skin.

His hand clenched around the pendent, teeth ground as he tried his level best not to do what he now desperately wanted to.

"Hand it over," Diane said, her voice more level now that Rose was bleeding and seemingly at her mercy. "Or this blade goes deeper. Last warning."

"No." He said firmly.

Diane sneered, arm shifted, and as Rose gasped the blade retracted. Both she and Diane looked at the droid's stump with confusion. He sensed Rose looking at him as he found the droid at her side among the hive and had it pull her away from Diane. She yelped, the lady in blue having held on to the pinned up braid to the end and pulling. A safe distance away from one Seurs sister, the Doctor listened for where Louanne was. Hearing her creep closer, but unsure of the exact distance, he shifted the droids behind him to act as a barrier. Louanne screamed, startled, so close to him he should have realized she'd been sneaking up the whole time.

Diane was seized by a droid, both hands held behind her back.

"There, Rose is safe, and by now your brother, Clara-Marie, and our friend should be out the back and no worse for wear. Know that for sure because your little remote lets me sense the location of all your droids. Never bothered to see where they were, did ya?"

"Would have gone after them once we took care of you two." Diane sneered.

"Course you were." He replied, putting on a brief grin. "Had to get rid of the competition and make me your boy toy before you recaptured your brother and his girlfriend. Oh well, plans change. Though how you're going to explain this to Daddy-dearest is gonna be interesting."

"Won't have to worry about that." Diane said smugly.

"Why's that, then?" The Doctor asked, folding his arms.

Diane smiled wickedly. "Cause all the droids have a fail safe." She said with confidence. "And you just turned a half a dozen of them toward their creator. Exactly how she'd need to trigger it."

He dropped his arms, turned around, and spotted Louanne smirking up at him. She had a droid chest open, her finger on a button, and with a little wave she pushed it.

It sparked violently, and he fought to keep control of the others as the singular switch seemed to trigger a domino effect throughout the bunch.

He made the one holding on to Rose let go, but he couldn't release Diane fast enough before the droid holding her sparked and spasmed. She cried out in pain, and he forced himself to ignore the sound of her bones crunching as the droid's hands clenched. He moved to Rose, took her hand, and started heading for the stage as the scent of smoke tickled his nose. A glance behind him, and he knew they'd have to really leg it. The theater, made of wood and dry from the near constant need to heat the building, was like kindling. And with nearly two dozen droids sparking around all the props and fabric backdrops, it took next to no time at all for everything to catch fire.

They moved, he and Rose, like their lives depended on it. And at the very least, hers did. Smoke filled the room, causing Rose's human lungs to falter as she began coughing. With the flames spreading rapidly behind them, and the heavy, soot-filled cloud starting to encroach around them, he wasted no more time. Scooping her up, he carried her out of the amphitheater at as quick as a run as he could manage. Rose looped her arms around his neck in a weak hold, coughing into his jumper. He could still smell the blood on her neck, still knew she was bleeding even if it was slow. Had to get her out of there, and quick.

Through the lobby, out the doors, into the cold air and daylight, he moved down the stairs and carried Rose a good way away from the theater. All around, villagers were scrambling out of the way or to try and help. Village authorities lugged hoses and buckets, but the quick rate in which the fire was spreading spelled disaster for the theater.

"So much for the ballet." Rose choked out before coughing. "Or Dickens for that matter."

He crouched down and set her down against the cool stone side walk where little snow remained. He said nothing as he pulled out his sonic and focused it on the slow bleeding cut on her neck. After it healed, he gently picked up her arm to take a look. He could heal it better back on the TARDIS.

"The sisters wouldn't have made it out, would they?" Rose asked him, her voice croaking.

He met her eye for the first time since escaping, and he could see the guilt he so often carried around when things ended as they had today.

"I don't know." He said, though he could tell she knew it was only for her benefit that he chose to say it. He was fairly certain they hadn't, not surrounded the way they were, not with how fast the flames engulfed the structure. Time Lord that he was barely got him and Rose out in time, a pair of humans who'd have slower reflexes likely weren't going to make it.

Rose nodded, glancing at the building briefly before sighing and leaning her head against his. Another sigh, and she shifted so her cheek was pressed against his. "Never been more appreciative of your lower body temperature." She murmured.

He laughed, out of relief, out of tension, out of sheer need, and wrapped his arms tightly around her. She coughed, then laughed as she hugged him back.

As they held each other with chaos around them, the Doctor felt himself resigning. She was fantastic, absolutely fantastic. He'd have died a dozen times over by now if it weren't for her. He could never live without her, could never bring himself to try. Because she was right, or at least partially. While he was certain she could have a better life without him in it, he knew his wasn't worth living without her.

And the surge of joy, of acceptance, of knowing in his hearts and soul that he would never try and send her off again, gave him an overwhelming need to kiss her.

"Doc! Rose!"

The Doctor laughed, as who else could ruin a moment like Jack?

He looked up, smiling at the relief plastered all over Jack's face as he ran up to them with Hans and Clara-Marie right behind him. The Doctor stood, helping Rose to her feet in the same move, and Jack collided with them with open arms.

"Had me worried," The Captain admitted. "Didn't think you'd make it out in time."

"Was a bit close." Rose said, her voice sounding better already.

"Well," Hans said, turning to the burning building. "In a small way, they got what they wished for. No more Nutcracker. Then again, no more performing arts at all for Noel."

"Can rebuild," The Doctor said as he pulled away from Jack but kept a supportive arm around Rose's waist as she leaned heavily on him. "Could even get creative, maybe perform outdoors." His face lit up as an idea sprung forward in his mind. "You two must know how to skate, growing up here?"

Hans and Clara-Marie exchanged a confused glance. "Of course." He said.

"Learn that practically after walking." The ballerina said with a chuckle on her breath.

"Old Earth tradition known as figure skating. Like dancing, just on ice. Look it up, might find you two don't have to spend the rest of your lives in the same routine. Might even bring some spice to your little village."

"It's an interesting concept." Hans nodded, putting his arms around Clara-Marie. "I'd be willing to try if you are."

She smiled up at him adoringly. Bright eyed, almost like she was in love. Very nearly the way Rose would …. The Doctor swallowed his hearts back down in his chest from where they leapt into his throat.

"Our own adventure," Clara-Marie giggled. "And we won't even have to run away to do it."

"Your fathers should still be at the Marron mansion." Jack said, gesturing in the direction of where it was. "Maybe you two could go back together."

"And what of my sisters?" Hans asked, looking from Jack to the Doctor. Understanding came to the ballerino, and his eyes dropped nearly as quick as they found the Doctor's. "I understand. I will mourn them, the whole family will. But I dare say that it may have been a more merciful punishment than what my father may have dealt out."

"Sounds like a tyrant." Jack commented.

"Maybe so," Hans nodded once. "But he loves and protects fiercely those who are loyal to him. Diane and Louanne have hardly ever been such, and I would hate to know how he'd have taken a betrayal such as this." The ballerino took a deep breath. "But no matter. What's done is done. It was our lives or theirs, in the end. I, for one, am thankful we were not all taken."

"Thank you," Clara-Marie said, meeting the Doctor's eye. "On behalf of both my father and myself, thank you."

He just nodded in return, watching as the young couple headed off toward the stable master's.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you to all the readers, favoriters, and followers of this story. Shortly after this I will be posting the epilogue as it's a week before Christmas and I'm going to be a bit distracted.

 **Micbb, Loca8892** , thank you for leaving word on the last chapter, and to anyone who leaves a review here after. As always if there is anything I can answer that's been asked in a review post story completion I will do my best to get back to you.


	10. Epilogue

The heat of the dermal regenerator caressed her skin in a way that felt immensely pleasant. The cool hand of the Doctor delicately holding her arm only enhanced the experience, and she couldn't help but watch his intense concentration. That focus being trained entirely on her made her heart swell, and it reminded her a bit of the aftermath of their kiss in Marron's spare study.

Yet the second the memory came to mind, she deflated a bit.

Once Clara-Marie and Hans were out of sight, she, the Doctor, and Jack all made leave of the village. Heading straight for the TARDIS, she felt a pang of guilt for the disaster they were leaving in their wake, yet knew that it had come as the cost of saving two innocent lives. And while she knew no loss was acceptable to the Doctor, she couldn't help but feel maybe Hans' sisters got what was coming to them. It made guilt gnaw on her a bit until she remembered what it felt like to have the blade pierce her neck.

After they had all returned to the magnificent time and space ship, the Doctor put them in the Vortex and then immediately dragged her down to the medbay. He directed her to hope up on the examination table wordlessly, bringing the rolling table with all his equipment close by, and a small stool for him to perch on immediately after. In the small room with just the two of them, the potential for tension of any kind was exponentially high, yet seemed to be non-existence for more than just her. The Doctor hadn't said a word, wasn't any more gentle or caring than he would normally be as he checked her over for further injury, and she was beginning to understand that if anything had changed between them it wouldn't be for the better. The trip, which held so much potential and had moments of euphoria, had also seemed to place more wedges between them. Too much arguing, too many things she managed to say that would only serve to push him further away. He went about his exams and then her healing in an entirely clinical fashion without a word.

The regenerator kicked off. "All set," he said softly, fingers lightly caressing her pinked but healed skin.

"Thank you," She said softly, watching the trail his calloused touch blazed. She cleared her throat, sucking up air and as much bravery as she could before catching his fingers and forcing herself to meet his eye. "I know I said some things back on Leatis," She started, getting his full attention. "Things that maybe I shouldn't have. I don't want things between us to get … I mean, I don't want it to be weird, you know?"

"Rose," he tried to cut her off.

"Can't lose you." She said firmly, shaking her head. "Can't have anything I said or did change how we are if it means this trip home is a last stop. I love this life with you, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Not a thing. So words I said, if it's too much, forget 'em, alright?"

"I won't." He said bluntly. "What did you say that I'd actually wanna forget? I mean, aside from you goin' on to the Seurs sisters about my not being interested in women. Would like to forget that, but it's not the first time ya hinted ya thought that so makes it kinda hard. What do I need to do or say to get it through that thick little human skull of yours that that ain't true."

Rose rolled her eyes, lips curling into a half grin. "Only said that as a distraction. Know you have an interest in women, couldn't miss it with the way you smiled at Lynda."

"That the only hint you've picked up on?" He asked with a playful smirk, thumb lightly skimming her skin a second.

"Had a few others, yeah." She nodded before sobering, eyes falling to where he still touched her arm gently. "Just don't know what to make of 'em."

She counted her breaths, forcing them to stay steady instead of allowing herself to get worked up over the quiet around her.

"Suppose that depends on what you want to make of 'em." The Doctor said after six breaths. She slowly met his eye again. He was looking off to the side, a shoulder lifting in a nonchalance he really didn't mean. "You want it to mean something, it can. Want it to be just a passing thing, can be that too."

"Well, what do you want?" She countered.

He snorted. "Doesn't matter what I want. I have my rules, though never been much of a rule follower, me. And you, Rose Tyler, make me wanna break'em all. But that's not my call to make, not really."

Rose's mouth went dry, and her heart hammered as it seemed the Doctor was fighting the urge to look at her.

A nudge in her mind made her blink, and a second made her look up and around in effort to understand what was happening. She knew on instinct it was the TARDIS, and the ship was trying to tell her something, but the feeling was still alien enough to startle her. In her search for understanding, something caught her eye.

Over the Doctor's head, just beyond any possible peripheral vision of his, sprang a small sprig of mistletoe.

"That a hint?" Rose asked out loud, getting the Doctor's full attention. The lights behind him blinked quickly as if to say yes as he just furrowed his brow in confusion.

Before he could make a comment, Rose hopped off the exam station, placed her palm on his cheek and and shifted forward.

"Rose!" Jack called, startling them apart. "Just wanna check, is this appropriate for …." A smack echoed in the corridor, causing she and the Doctor to cringe as Jack groaned in agony. "What was that for?" The Captain said, rubbing his head as he looked about while entering the med bay.

"Fixed point, Jack." The Doctor said, amused. "TARDIS handles 'em a touch better than I do, but doesn't mean she's perfect."

"So I should just continue expecting to find door frames suddenly lowered or books toppling off shelves from now on?"

"Should do, yeah." He replied perkily.

Jack mumbled something under his breath, shaking his head and putting his hands on his hips before seeming to notice them for the first time. "Oh, was I interrupting?"

"Interrupting what?" The Doctor asked smoothly. "Just making sure Rose is all healed up. Just gotta take care of one more thing, then we're off to see Jackie."

The disappointment that came over Jack nearly broke Rose's heart. "Right," he said as if he'd been the one who was reject. "Well, just wanted to make sure I'm dressed for the occasion."

"You're fine, Jack." Rose grinned. "I'm gonna head off and change in a minute."

Jack nodded. "Alright, see you in the console room?" He asked the Doctor.

"Be there in a mo." He replied, and Jack left the room with a pat on the door frame. A second later she heard him stumble in the hallway.

"Oh come on, beautiful." He buttered up the TARDIS, his voice fading with the distance.

"You should go get ready to see your mother." The Doctor said. "Sure you're eager to let her know you're okay, celebrate and all that stuff."

Rose turned back to face him, seeing the disappointment and resignation in his put on smile. Above his head, the mistletoe reappeared, a bigger bunch than there had been before.

She replaced her palm on his cheek, marveling at how his eyes fluttered shut for just a moment as he leaned into her touch.

She felt the edge they were teetering on, the way it could all change for better or worse depending on which way she moved. His eyelids cracked open, his bright blue eyes peeking up into hers. "Rose?" He asked, or begged. Maybe pleaded. Possibly warned. She really didn't know. Didn't know what he wanted, what it would mean if she risked everything, the consequences of what might happen if she didn't.

It was a decision made in a breath, as was running off with him all that time ago.

Rose slid her hand from his cheek to his neck, closed her eyes, and took a leap.


End file.
